The pilot of a Cessna 182 R and the Rockwall Municipal Airport are sharing blame for a fatal plane crash that killed two men from Abilene, a final report from the National Transportation Safety Board says. Donald Wehmeyer, 75 and Curtis Robertson Junior, 64, were killed by the impact of the plane hitting the ground near the airport. Wehmeyer was the pilot, according to the report. Robertson, a passenger, was pilot-rated.
The crash happened in November 12, 2020 when Wehmeyer tried, then aborted a landing at the Rockwall municipal airport. Wehmeyer then tried to regain altitude, but the plane cut into nearby power lines.
“The pilot’s decision to continue an unstabilized approach and his delayed go-around decision, which resulted in the airplane’s impact with power lines and the ground,” the NTSB report said. “Contributing to the accident was the inaccurate wind direction reporting as a result of a misaligned crossarm on the weather reporting station.”
The plane had announced its intention to land at the airport, but the runway was busy, according to witnesses.
“A helicopter pilot who was hovering over a taxiway stated that he heard the accident pilot announce that his airplane was 10 miles away and that he intended to land on runway 35. The helicopter pilot told the accident pilot that runway 17 was in use, but no acknowledgement or reply was received. The accident pilot announced shortly afterward that his airplane was on a 3-mile final for runway 35. The helicopter pilot repeated that runway 17 was in use, and once again, no reply of acknowledgement was received.” the report said.
The NTSB report said Wehmeyer had an unstable approach to the runway, attempting to land half way down, but then running out of room.
“In my opinion the proper course of action when you know you are too high to make the landing is to go around before you touch down and then you make a normal pattern and come back around, where he waited so long to go around that he didn’t have enough room to go over the power lines,” said Ty Barringer, Mesquite, a pilot who was flying around the airport and witnessed the crash.
Barringer, and other witnesses, say it appeared the pilot was not going to be able to stop before he ran out of runway.
“He clipped the power lines, or stalled into the power lines or something on the attempt to go around.” Barringer said.
The NTSB report said those statements are backed by security cameras.
“Multiple surveillance cameras captured the accident sequence and showed that the airplane did not touch down on the runway until about one-half way down the usable runway area. After the airplane touched down and passed the segmented circle, smoke from the main landing gear wheels could briefly be seen. Immediately afterward, the airplane overran the departure end of the runway and descended toward lower terrain before the airplane ascended slightly and impacted power lines that were located about 440 ft north of the departure end of the runway.”
Contributing to the accident was a broken wind direction indicator at the airport weather station.
“A post accident inspection of the automated weather observing system revealed that a missing mounting screw allowed the crossarm to be misaligned at some point before the accident. As a result, the wind was reported as 30° to 40° to the west of the actual wind direction at the time of the accident flight. This misalignment resulted in the airplane landing with a slight tailwind as opposed to the headwind the pilot was expecting based upon the reported wind condition.”
Although the plane did not explode, the impact killed both men.
Wehmeyer had served in the Air Force as a general surgeon at Dyess Air Force Base, according to news reports.
Robertson had operated a sporting store.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD