PHILIPSBURG – The National Transportation Safety Board released a report this week outlining three factors that were the probable cause of a small plane crash near Mid-State Airport outside of Philipsburg, Centre County, in June 2006. The final report on the crash was issued earlier in the week. It detailed an interview with a passenger in the plane.
The probable cause report states that the pilot of the plane, 21-year-old Kaul M. Wilson of Tennessee did not comply with proper procedure to approach the airport’s runway without the use of navigation equipment. Specifically, Wilson’s automatic direction finder was not tuned to the proper frequency.
Wilson was making the flight last summer to transport Mohamed Abdel-Khalik to the Moshannon Valley Correctional Institution. Abdel-Khalik was on his way to turn himself in to serve a six-month sentence for illegally using a Texas resident’s birth certificate to obtain a passport.
Abdel-Khalik is not a U.S. citizen and is not eligible for a U.S. passport.
Abdel-Khalik had attempted to take a commercial flight from Tennessee to Pennsylvania to turn himself in on June 25, 2006, when many of the major carriers’ flights were canceled due to low visibility. Wilson agreed to take the flight, taking Abdel-Khalik and Fayez Abdel to Mid-State Airport with an alternate landing site at Pittsburgh.
The NTSB reported that although there was a low cloud ceiling and dark night conditions when Wilson attempted to land at Mid-State, the plane would likely have not been able to make it to the alternate landing site due to the fact that the pilot had about 41 minutes of fuel remaining.
Wilson was killed when the plane went down near the airport in a wooded area. Abdel-Khalik, Abdel and another passenger, Justin Hughes, suffered injuries in the crash.
The report also noted that Wilson was notified of degrading weather conditions about one hour prior to his flight.
At the time of the accident, Wilson had about 625 hours of flying experience.