Mechanical Failure Or Pilot Error Presumed
TAMPA – A day after pilot Harlan “Lanny” Northcott and his two passengers died while attempting to fly a cancer patient home, his devastated family tried to cope with their loss.
“I am barely functioning,” said Northcott’s daughter, Paula Klotz. “We are doing the best we can.”
As he had done so many times in the past 20 years, Northcott planned to take to the skies Thursday afternoon on a mission of compassion.
With him in the small airplane were a cancer patient and a teenage friend of the patient’s family: Patricia Snyer, 49, and Tyler McLellan, 15, both of Stuart.
Snyder had just finished a treatment at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.
Northcott, a volunteer pilot for the medical charity Angel Flight, was taking them home to Stuart on Florida’s east coast.
Shortly before 3:30 p.m. at Vandenberg Airport in east Hillsborough County, the Beechcraft Bonanza hit an antenna, crashed and burst into flames near the runway.
Northcott, 81, of Sun City Center, Snyder and McLellan died in the fireball.
The National Transportation Safety Board has ruled out weather as a factor in the crash and is looking at a possible mechanical failure or pilot error, an investigator said Friday.
NTSB investigator Corky Smith told Bay News 9 the aircraft was about 45 feet in the air when a witness said it drifted to the left, the landing gear came up and the right wingtip struck a glide slope antenna, an instrument that helps pilots land.
“The aircraft then cartwheeled to the right, impacted the ground and burst into flames,” Smith said
‘It Wasn’t Meant To Be’
On Friday, Northcott’s son, Glenn, arrived at the airport to collect his father’s belongings. In an emotional news conference hours after the crash Thursday, Northcott, a Continental Airlines pilot, said his father was scheduled to fly to Witham Field in Stuart.
On Thursday, Tyler’s brother, Kevin McLellan, 18, got a tattoo memorializing his brother.
“He was young. Fifteen years old. Good kid — never did nothing wrong to nobody. Always tried to help people; always tried to make everyone happy. It’s a tragedy. It wasn’t meant to be,” he said Friday.
“My parents used to driver her [Snyder] to Tampa every other week,” McLellan said. “Then someone turned her on to Angel Flight, and she pretty much just kind of went with them.”
McLellan said his brother attended Martin County High School in Stuart, where he played football and enjoyed hanging out with friends.
Tyler’s aunt, Karen Osborn of Texas, said Tyler was a compassionate kid. She said he was more than 6 feet tall and more than 220 pounds. She said Tyler adored and took great care of his sister, 7-year-old Curry.
“Patty was a really good friend of the family’s who had cancer,” Osborn said. “The family had gone out with her when she got her news recently and it was bad news that she had to continue the chemo.”
“She had to go back, and he said, ‘I’ll be your angel. I’ll fly with you, I’ll stay with you.’ “
‘A Go-To Pilot’
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been two other fatal accidents involving Angel Flights.
A crash on June 3 in Iowa City, Iowa, resulted in the death of a passenger. The pilot and another passenger were seriously injured.
The other happened on March 21, 1996, in Coffeeville, Kan., killing three people.
Angel Flight mission coordinator Angel Gamble said Northcott had been flying with the organization since 2004, logging about 60 missions.
“He was such a faithful, awesome pilot,” she said. “He’s one of those that stands out in my book. He was a go-to pilot.”
She said he helped out with disaster relief during the response to Hurricane Katrina, when the organization shuttled people and supplies.
Northcott also flew transplant missions, taking patients to locations where they could receive organ transplants.
His last transplant mission was Dec. 6, taking a patient from St. Petersburg to Gainesville for a kidney. Gamble said that when he called Northcott, he giggled because he had just climbed a ladder to put Christmas decorations on his house.
“He said, “Are you kidding me? My wife’s been after me for weeks to put up these decorations!’
“He said, “Absolutely, I’ll go.’ “
Gamble said Northcott was always reliable. “He would drop everything to help our missions.”
Members Of The Family
McLellan said he and Snyder had been roommates for about eight months. Snyder’s voice can be heard on their home answering machine, cheerily telling callers, “I gotta walk out the door. … Gotta fly out for some chemo.”
Snyder worked at Clock Family Restaurant in Stuart for four years.
“I’m really, really upset here,” said John Hoffman, a manager there. “Everybody here is stunned. All I can tell you is we miss Patty. We loved her so much.”
Gamble issued a written statement offering condolences to the families of the deceased and saying the organization is cooperating with investigators.
“Our hearts are saddened as we lost a fellow pilot and two passengers who were all friends and members of our Angel Flight Southeast family,” the statement reads.
Northcott had a current pilot certification with instrument rating, according to FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. His medical certificate – which he received last August – was also current, Bergen said. The FAA requires that, every two years, pilots show that they are in good health, have good eyesight, a good mental state and are taking only approved medications, Bergen said.
There is no upper age limits for pilots, Bergen said.
“There are many people in their 80s or 90s who have pilot certifications,” Bergen said.
By HOWARD ALTMAN and ELAINE SILVESTRINI. Stuart News reporter Will Greenlee, News Channel 8 reporter Jennifer Leigh, Tribune Reporter Jessica DaSilva and Valerie Kalfrin and Tribune researcher Stephanie Pincus contributed to this report.
