HOULTON, Maine — More than a year after a plane crashed into a wooded area in the community, killing the pilot, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are still compiling a report about the aviation accident.
Although the preliminary report about the accident that killed 30-year-old pilot Bakary Doucoure of Le Blanc, France, at 2 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2015, was completed shortly after it occurred, the final report into the crash of his twin-engine Piper PA-44-180 plane while conducting an instrument approach into Houlton International Airport has not yet been released.
The airline transport plane, which departed Goose Bay Airport in Labrador, Canada, was scheduled to be delivered by the pilot to a customer in Florida on the day of the accident, according to the report. The plane crashed about a mile south of the airport after clipping some trees, ending up in a man-made pond. A wing and other debris were found on the ground and in trees surrounding the area. Doucoure’s body was taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta for identification but a cause of death has not yet been released.
According to the preliminary report, upon approaching Houlton International Airport, Doucoure maintained the instructed altitude of 3,500 feet and then descended to approximately 3,000 feet. He crossed the initial approach point, reversed course, and tracked approximately along the final approach course of 049 degrees. The airplane passed about 2,500 feet and continued its descent on the inbound course. The report stated that the final radar target was at 1,500 feet, about 2.5 miles prior to the landing runway.
United States Customs and Border Patrol agents who were not named in the report and were awaiting the airplane’s arrival heard it approach and described the engine noise to NTSB investigators as “smooth and continuous, until the sounds of impact were heard.”
One agent said that the runway lights were “never illuminated,” and that it was foggy, “misty,” and that visibility was poor.
Benjamin Torres is the fixed base operator at Houlton International Airport. He said Thursday that the lights at the airport are never left on at night because the airport has an automatic system that allows pilots to activate the runway lights themselves by clicking communication equipment in the cockpit.
“The lights stay on for fifteen minutes and go off, but can be reactivated by the pilot,” said Torres.
Torres also said that Doucoure was using two navigation aides that were maintained by the FAA. Investigators from the FAA came to the airport the day after the crash and tested both navigational aides and concluded that both units at the Houlton airport were working properly, Torres said.
The plane was not equipped with a “black box” recording device.
Eric Weiss is a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C. He said last week that all investigations into plane crashes must be thorough.
“There is no set time to complete an investigation,” he said. “Whenever everything is squared away and we are sure that the report and our investigation is complete and factual is when the final report is made available to the public.”
