The flight instructor piloting a jet that crashed July 21 in western Minnesota told the pilot-in-training in the back seat to eject three times before doing so himself, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
That pilot-in-training, David Colin Dacus, 49, of San Francisco, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, which was near Granite Falls Municipal Airport, according to the Yellow Medicine County Sheriff's Office. The flight instructor, Mark Ryan Ruff, 43, of Dallas, was seriously injured but survived.
Here's what the report says about the crash.
Flight was part of a 'familiarization' process for the pilot-in-training
Ruff told investigators that Dacus was interested in purchasing an Aero Vodochody L-39 – the type of jet involved in the crash – and was receiving initial "familiarization" flight training, the report says.
Dacus had a "private pilot certificate," but didn't have previous flight experience in the Aero Vodochody L-39. Ruff, though, reported having flown about 50 hours in that type of jet, and gave Dacus several hours of on-the-ground instruction before the flight, including a discussion of the "ejection seat system."
Ruff intended to provide flight instruction during a three-leg flight. The first two legs of the flight, from Alpine, Wyoming, to Gillette, Wyoming, and then to Watertown, South Dakota, were uneventful, the report says. The crash occurred during the flight's third leg between Watertown, South Dakota, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where Ruff and Dacus planned to attend the 2025 EAA AirVenture event.
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Smoke-filled cockpit, 'metal-to-metal grinding noise' preceded crash
Ruff and Dacus "simultaneously smelled an odor emitted from inside their helmet oxygen masks" shortly after taking off from Watertown Regional Airport, and then smoke began to fill the cockpit, according to the report.
"About 4-5 seconds later, the aircraft shook briefly in conjunction with an audible metal-to-metal grinding noise," the report says.
Ruff depressurized the jet, and the smoke dissipated from the cockpit. Ruff made three unsuccessful attempts to restart the engine, then he shifted his focus to finding an airport where they could land. After a series of turns, Ruff extended the jet's landing gear, but determined it wouldn't reach the runway.
That's when Ruff told Dacus to "prepare to eject," to which Dacus reportedly replied, "OK," the report says.
"The flight instructor stated he brought the airplane into a wings-level attitude and reduced the descent rate before he told the pilot-receiving-instruction to eject," according to the report. "When he did not hear the rear seat eject from the airplane, the flight instructor again told the pilot-receiving-instruction, using his first name this time, to eject. The flight instructor again did not hear the rear seat eject from the airplane."
With time running out to safely eject, Ruff told Dacus to eject for a third time before activating his own ejection seat. Ruff ejected, then descended under an open parachute to the ground below.
Wreckage recovered after jet crashes near Granite Falls airport
The jet clipped a power line about 800 feet short of a runway at Granite Falls Municipal Airport, then descended before colliding with a berm next to railroad tracks parallel to Highway 23, the report says
"The airplane nose and cockpit sustained heavy impact crushing deformation," and the fuselage separated from the wing, according to the report, which also describes a strong smell of jet fuel at the crash site.
Dacus was found "restrained in the rear ejection seat that separated from the airframe during the ground impact," and because of the ejection seat's "unused firing mechanism," a bomb squad responded to the scene.
The wreckage was recovered from the crash site and moved to a secure location, where it could be further examined, the report says.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: NTSB report details fatal July 21 jet crash in western Minnesota
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