Chapter 30: Crash

“November One Bravo Foxtrot please state the nature of your emergency and the number of souls on board.”

Those were words I prayed I’d never hear in my entire lifetime yet five minutes earlier I had broken off an approach into Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts, in the Cessna Citation to sort things out at a higher altitude over western Massachusetts. I’d called in with my call sign and ‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday’, as I’d been taught.

“Boston Approach, One Bravo Foxtrot is showing two green lights and one amber light on the gear down indicator. The indicator shows that the right main landing gear is not down or locked. I’ve tried recycling the gear about a dozen times and also some downward G-forces as the gear cycles but there’s no change in indication. I’d like to do a fly-by of the tower and have them tell me what they see is going on under my right wing. I’ll also arrange for some folks from my ground crew to take a look too.” I paused and added, “Oh, yes, I am alone and have a little over two- thousand pounds of fuel left.”

“Stand by One Bravo Foxtrot,” Boston Approach replied.

Monday I’d flown two others from my ad agency down to North Carolina where we had a new client – a resort in the western mountains. My colleagues had stayed with the client for the rest of the week while I’d finished my part of the business and headed back to Massachusetts. This late afternoon flight had been uneventful up until my approach into Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts – just a few miles from downtown Boston.

As I waited for Boston Approach to get back to me I called Executive Jet on their Unicom frequency, the place where we parked the aircraft. I explained the problem and asked that they call Josh and get him out to the airfield immediately.

I also asked that they patch in on the Unicom frequency either David Lafontaine or Greg Bellsen from the Wichita Cessna Flight Center; these two guys had been my flight instructors for my advanced ratings and also my type rating in the Cessna Citation only a few months earlier. They knew this plane as well as any one I could think of. They had also participated in the Mile-High Club with me a few months earlier.

The radio came alive. “One Bravo Foxtrot, Boston Approach. You are cleared for a fly-by of the Hanscom Tower. I’ll hand you off to the tower outside the outer marker inbound and pick you back up as you climb back out. After your fly-by climb to one thousand, turn left to three-six-zero degrees and climb to three thousand. Enter a hold at the ELLIS Intersection until you decide on your course of action.”

I repeated all that back to Boston Approach and started to head back to the air field.

The Unicom radio came alive. “Megan, Baby! Josh here. You okay.” His voice had a slight panic in it.

“No, I’m not okay, Josh, but I may have to prang up your plane a bit depending on the gear. One question you’ll need to decide is whether you want me to do a full belly flop or tetter on two wheels for as long as I can?” I noted that my voice sounded remarkably calm given that the rest of my body was tightening into knots.

“Be back to you. Hold on, here’s another friend,” Josh said.

“Hi Megan, Greg Bellsen here. Can you hear me all right?”

“Yes, Greg. I hear you fine. Thanks for your help. I’m headed for a fly-by of the tower now – probably five minutes out. Josh will you be there?”

Josh responded first, “I’ll be right beside the runway with binoculars watching your every move.”

Greg said, “Just play it as a straight low-altitude missed approach for now. I’m on my way into the Flight Center so I can pull a couple of manuals. Dave’s on his way in here too. Use your checklists.”

I acknowledged their help and let things get quiet. I ran through the checklists again for the tenth time. I checked and rechecked the circuit breakers.

A few minutes later Boston Approach came on and handed me off to Hanscom Tower. As I looked ahead at the airport from the outer marker about five miles ahead I could see a panoply of red blinking lights. Most of the nearby fire departments had provided equipment and it looked like more were arriving at the field as I flew down the approach path with my headlights blazing even though it was a few hours from sunset.

By agreement with the Tower I leveled out visually about fifty feet off the ground. I might have cheated by ten feet. I flew a flawless fly-by with the tower on my right, folded up the gear and executed the assigned missed approach.

“One Bravo Foxtrot, Hanscom Tower. We see your right main gear is down and cocked at about a sixty-degree angle but not moving into position. The left main and nose gear appear to be in their normal down and locked position. If you have no questions, go on over to Boston Approach.”

I acknowledged their communication and went back to Approach. Approach had me head up to ELLIS Intersection for my hold.

I went back to Unicom, “One Bravo Foxtrot with you. I assume you heard Tower. You see anything else.”

Josh came on, “It looks like the gear door is binding against the sheet metal under the wing in some way. I thought I saw a ripple in the sheet metal next to the door on that wing, but it was hard to tell at that speed.”

There was some other chatter as he held the mic open but I couldn’t understand what was aid. Josh came back on, “The battalion chief of the Lexington fire department agrees with what I just told you. He’s a pilot too and was watching from the other side of the runway. He thinks the gear door has bound up with the wing’s sheet metal for some reason and won’t open any further.”