By Doug Most
Staff Writer

The pilot who crashed his plane into a Hasbrouck Heights neighborhood as he approached Teterboro Airport had asked to make a quick and direct landing, but was denied because of heavy congestion, federal investigators said Tuesday.

The report by the National Transportation Safety Board mentions congestion in the skies for the first time since the fiery crash two weeks ago that killed all four people aboard the plane.

It also said that after the Teterboro tower denied his request, the pilot ignored repeated instructions from an air traffic controller, passed danerously close to another plane trying to land at Teterboro, and finally flew into the path of other flights before the final, fatal plunge.

The preliminary report by NTSB investigator Robert Hanfcock does not say what caused the Dec. 9 accident. That determination could take six months.

But three pilots who read the NTSB report and are familiar with what it takes to fly into the crowded airport said the most plausible explanation is that the pilot became disoriented at an airport that is difficult to approach at night and made steep turns to get back on course. Those turns could have caused him to lose airspeed, resulting in a stall, which means the plane’s wings could not produce enough lift to maintain level flight.

In doing so, he almost took another plane down with him.

William Dibiasio was preparing to land his Piper Navajo at Teterboro that night when a controller warned him to watch out for a Beech Baron. Dibiasio then saw the twin-engine Baron flying in the opposit -- wrong -- direction.

"It definitely got my attention, seeing a flash under my wing," said Dibiasio, who reviewed the NTSB report. "We made a big left turn and then watched him."

Dibiasio said he looked on helplessly as the Baron, a minute or so later, plunged to the ground and exploded.

"It was a big fireball. I have never in my life, in my 40 years of flying, seen anyone killed in a plane until that day," the pilot from Lincoln, R.I., said Tuesday. He has made a formal statement to investigators.

"It’s not an airport for amateurs," Dibiasio said of Teterboro. "It’s a busy airport, but the systems in place at that airport are the best you can have."

The four people on board the 1980 Beech Baron -- the pilot, who told air controllers he was familiar with Teterboro, a co-worker at his aviation business and a young couple all from the Richmond, VA., area -- were killed. The crash has led to calls from residents living near the airport and politicians to have the Federal Aviation Administration shift Teterboro’s flight patterns farther from homes.

Among the new details in the NTSB report is that the pilot, Paul A. Pedersen Jr., had made another flight much earlier in the day, leaving Hanover County, VA., Municipal Airport at 6:30 a.m. and returning at 3 p.m. Some experts wondered if that earlier flight might have left Pedersen weary by the time his second flight was to end at Teterboro 12 hours later.

The report says Teterboro was highly congested that night. Pedersen was seventh in line to land and 20 planes were waiting to take off -- conditions pilots say are not unusual for a weeknight.

Pedersen’s plane was last spotted on radar completing a sharp 180-degree turn at an altitude of 500 feet, the report said. The pilots who reviewed the report said that altitude is too low for such a maneuver, another indication Pedersen may have been disoriented.

Pedersen was an experienced pilot, with 10,000 flying hours. But he lost his license for 45 days last year after crashing a plane that ran out of fuel over Maryland. Two other flying incidents were under investigation when he died.

The three pilots who reviewed the NTSB report stressed that they were only speculating, based on their aviation expertise.

Pedersen, they said, was on the same approach used by most planes coming from the west. But somehow, he either did not hear or misunderstood an instruction from an air traffic controller.

"His responses to the tower may have been blocked by other transmissions," said J.P. Tristani, a retired Eastern Airlines pilot from Ramsey.

"The communication from the tower could have been stepped on," meaning several people were talking at once, said Robert Grinch, a Ridgewood pilot. "But a prudent pilot should confirm everything. You have to have clearance to so something. You should read back all clearances for altitudes and headings."

Possibly disoriented and ignoring the controller’s instructions, Pedersen made a wrong turn, heading west and into the path of arriving flights the report said. Finally, perhaps trying to get back on course, he may have started looking out his side windows to get his bearings, something the pilots said can lead to trouble.

Grinch said that if a pilot loses track of his airspeed and how level his plane is, it can lead to a stall. Tristani said Pedersen made a series of sharp left and right turns, which also could have led to a stall if his airspeed dropped.

"I don’t know if he stalled or spun out or what," said Dibiasio, the Piper pilot who witnessed the crash. "But a stall is a reasonable speculation."

One point in the report that caught the attention of both Grinch and Tristani was that Pedersen may have been in a hurry to land. He was flying the young couple to a party in New York.

As Pedersen approached Teterboro about 5:20 p.m., he asked to make a visual approach, instead of an approach using instruments.

"The reason you do that is to save time, probably to expedite his trip," Grinch said. "He just wanted to make a right turn and land. I don’t blame him for asking."

"It looks like he was rushing to get on the ground," Tristani said.

But the controller declined Pedersen’s request and told him that because of traffic congestion, he had to be put in line and was seventh to land.

That’s when the trouble began.

The controller told Pedersen to fly over the airport at 1,500 feet and make a left turn. Pedersen responded that he was to the right of the runway, the NTSB report said.

The controller asked what Pedersen’s heading was.

"I’m trying to do a [180 degree turn] to follow that traffic on final."

"No sir," the controller answered. "I want you overhead and left of the field... You’re turning right into traffic at 1,000 feet that’s poceeding up the north-west."

While continuing his instructions, the controller then contacted Dibiasio, who was landing his Piper.

"Watch for traffic," the controller warned Dibiasio. "Might be just off your right side is a Beech Baron there. He made a 360 on me just out there to the west of the field."

"Uh, we got him in sight, thank you," Dibiasio responded.

The controller then tried to contact Pedersen, but got no reply.

The report says three witnesses at the airport said they saw an inbound plane take a steep right turn, then an immediate steep left bank before disappearing.

"The controller did great job," Dibiasio said. "He never lost his cool. It could have been much worse."

Copyright © 1999 Bergen Record Corp.