Bad weather and pilot inexperience might have been factors in the crash that killed a Gilroy family of five Dec. 19, when their Piper PA-32RT broke up in mid-air on the way from San Jose to Henderson, Nevada, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB).
Pilot Jason Price, 42, radioed “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” over Bakersfield, after a harrowing trip skirting heavy storm clouds, according to the report. He was advised to turn right, or southward, but turned left instead before radioing the international distress signal.
Jason Price piloted the plane that carried his wife Olga Price, 42, and their three children, John, 14, Mary, 10, and Olivia, 9.
Price held a private pilot certificate with ratings for airplane single-engine issued in July 2012 but had just two short flights relying only on instruments made in Feb. 2014. He did not hold an instrument rating and had flown 269.5 hours, less than one hour relying only on instruments, the NTSB report said.
The pilot was trying to avoid storm clouds to the south and east at 3:50 p.m. An air traffic controller asked Price twice without response to turn 10 degrees right to avoid traffic. Rather than turning right, the airplane began a climbing left turn to an altitude of 15,600 ft, 40 seconds later.
The airplane then descended to 13,800 feet and headed east, according to the report. A few seconds later the pilot reported, “air traffic control Lance 402 Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” followed 20 seconds later by another Mayday call. Six minutes later the plane was last seen on radar at 11,200 feet. The controller asked other planes if they could see the Piper, but one pilot reported that the area was enveloped in clouds.
The airplane had fragmented in flight, with the majority of its components landing in an almond orchard, directly below the last radar target, about nine miles southwest of Bakersfield, the NTSB report said. It left a trail of debris for half a mile.
Jason Price worked as a principle reliability engineer at GenesisSolutions, a Connecticut company.
His son John had attended Brownell Middle School in Gilroy for sixth and seventh grades. Olivia and Mary attended fourth and fifth grades at Luigi Aprea Elementary School. A candlelight vigil for the two girls was held Jan. 7 at the school.
