January 10, 2024
Page 21
Martin Luther King Jr.
2024 Special Edition
Power Lines Plane
Crash Causes Fatalities
HELLO, ACCESS CHECKING
Mohammad Hussain Musawi, center, stands with his flight instruc-
tor, left, and Darin Chung, co-founder of the Afghan American
Development Group, a nonprofit that helps former Afghan military
aviation personnel with refugee resettlement assistance in the
U.S., at a flight hangar in Independence, Ore. on April 7, 2023.
(Nikki Chung via AP)
All 3 Men were
Afghan Air
Force Pilots
who resettled as
refugees
AP- A former Afghan Air Force
pilot training for a commercial li-
cense in Oregon ignored his flight
instructor’s advice to not return
to a small airport because of low
visibility. The plane later crashed,
killing the pilot and the other two
passengers on board, according
to a preliminary federal report of
the accident released Friday.
All three men killed in the ac-
cident Dec. 16 were former Af-
ghan pilots who fought with the
American military. Local non-
profit Salem for Refugees said
it resettled the men in the Salem
area last spring.
The pilot, Mohammad Hus-
sain Musawi, 35, and the two
passengers, Mohammad Bashir
Safdari, 35, and Ali Jan Ferdaw-
si, 29, died in the crash near In-
dependence, a small city in the
Willamette Valley about 12 miles
(19 kilometers) southwest of Sa-
lem. The National Transportation
Safety Board’s report said an
examination of the airframe and
the engine of the Cessna 172G
airplane revealed no mechani-
cal malfunctions or failures. The
plane’s owner allowed the pilot to
use the Cessna to get his private
pilot’s certificate and to obtain his
instrument rating and commercial
pilot’s certificate, the report said.
Musawi told his flight instructor
that he and a pilot-rated passenger
would fly from Independence to
the McMinnville airport to prac-
tice instrument approaches, the re-
port said. The two small cities are
about 30 miles apart by road.
Two approaches were made
at McMinnville before the plane
landed. The flight instructor,
who was electronically monitor-
ing the flight, called Musawi and
advised him not to return to In-
dependence because of low vis-
ibility of about 500 feet due to
fog, the report said.
Musawi told the instructor that
he would fly to Independence,
assess the situation and either at-
tempt to land, divert to Salem or
return to McMinnville, the report
said. He also said he had picked
up a second pilot-rated passenger
in McMinnville. Air traffic control
recordings indicate the pilot made
two position reports on approach
that included his intention to land
in Independence, the report said.
He also electronically activated
the pilot-controlled landing lights
to medium intensity.
The pilot overshot the runway
to the east, overcorrected and
overshot it to the west and came
to rest inverted on the edge of an
open field next to airport proper-
ty, the report said.
A fire reduced the fuselage to
ash, but the wings did not catch
on fire, the report said. The en-
gine had separated from the air-
plane, and it was found about 60
feet (18 meters) northwest of the
main wreckage, the report said.
The plane likely first hit an
80-foot utility pole, located
about 60 feet (18 meters) south-
east of the wreckage.
The pole was in three piec-
es. The top 4 feet (1.22 meters)
of the pole shattered and was
strewn in the wreckage. The
middle section, about 12 feet
(3.66 meters) in length, fell onto
the right wing, and about 69 feet
(21 meters) of the original pole
remained standing.
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