Determining that he would not be able to reach the runway at the Granite Falls Airport for an emergency landing, the flight instructor piloting the small jet that crashed a month ago south of Granite Falls told his fellow occupant three times to eject before he did so himself, according to a preliminary report recently filed by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The occupant, David Colin Dacus, 46, of San Francisco, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash that occurred shortly before 5:30 p.m. July 21 along Minnesota 23. He was found restrained in the rear ejection seat of the wreckage.
Dacus had a private pilot’s certificate, but was on the flight as a pilot-in-training to be certified for the jet he was interested in purchasing.
Flight instructor Mark Ryan Ruff, 43, of Dallas, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries caused by the ejection and parachute landing, according to the report. Ruff, who has certifications to fly large commercial aircraft, including the Boeing 777 Airbus, also has certification for the 50-year-old, Czech-built Aero Vodochody L-39 high-performance military jet they were flying.
Just over 10 minutes had elapsed between the time the instructor notified air traffic controllers of engine failure and the crash. The jet was 821 feet short of the runway when its tail clipped a power line and crashed into an earthen berm between the highway and a BNSF Railway line.
The engine failure occurred as the two were flying on the third leg of a trip from Gillette, Wyo., to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., for the Experimental Aircraft Association event.
According to the report, the jet departed the Watertown Regional Airport in eastern South Dakota and climbed to 21,800 feet. Engine power was set at 103% during the continuous climb, yielding 280 knots true airspeed, which equates to 322.4 miles per hour.
The two were wearing helmet oxygen masks and reported smelling an odor followed by smoke intrusion into the cockpit. Four to five seconds later, “the aircraft shook briefly in conjunction with an audible metal-to-metal grinding noise.”
The pilot tried three times to restart the engine, but without success. He turned his attention to locating an airport for a forced landing.
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