NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Two and a half years after two planes crashed above the skies over the North Las Vegas airport, we're learning how the crash happened.
The National Transportation Safety Board has released its final report, detailing what led up to the incident on July 17, 2022, which left four people dead.
A Piper PA-46, with Donald Goldberg and Carol Ann Scanlon, was approaching the airport after completing a flight. At the same time, a flight instructor and student pilot, later identified as Anthony Chiaramonti and Zachary Rainey, were conducting takeoffs and landings in a single-engine Cessna 172 at the airport.
The report states air traffic control confirmed the landing path for the Piper and as it began descending to the airport, it collided with the Cessna on the final approach.
A visibility study conducted by the NTSB determined that it would have been difficult for the pilots of each plane to see and avoid one another due to the size of their windscreens.
According to the NTSB, the crash was caused because of the Piper pilot's "failure to ensure that the airplane was aligned with the correct runway". They also stated that the air traffic controller failed to provide timely and adequate traffic information to either airplane and failed to "recognize the developing conflict and to act in a timely manner."
"The controller did not issue traffic advisory information to either of the airplanes involved in the collision at any time during their respective approaches for landing, even though the low-wing airplane crossed about 500 feet over the high-wing airplane as it descended over the airport," the report states in part.
The agency also stated that a contributing factor to the incident was the Federal Aviation Administration's insufficient staffing of the facility, which required excessive overtime that "did not allow for proper controller training or adequate recovery time between shifts."
The report states that on average, controllers clock between 400 to 500 hours of overtime. Because of this, the air traffic manager told the agency that "everyone on the team was exhausted and that work/life balance was non-existent."
I reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration to see if any changes have been made at the North Las Vegas Airport since the accident, including additional staffing for air traffic control.
An agency spokesperson said that since there is ongoing litigation regarding the crash, the FAA is unable to comment on the matter.
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