Pilot recalls emergency

Retired pilot Don Worley.

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Story Published: Jun 12, 2009 at 2:26 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jun 12, 2009 at 2:26 PM PDT

By Matt Loveless

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LEWISTON - Don Worley retired from flying in 1984. The 82-year-old Nez Perce County resident starting flying planes after World War II, and retired after decades as a commercial airline captain.

His retirement flight to Las Vegas was 25-years-ago. But the tragic final flight of Air France Flight 447, and the suspected reason behind its crash, is reminding Worley of one of his flight's in 1982.

Worley was a captain for Republic Airlines, when during a short flight from Seattle to Portland, he and his crew lost the ability to read their air speed.

"There's three positions co-pilot, pilot, and auxiliary, and all of those were erroneous," said Worley.

That prompted an emergency call to the control tower in Portland.

"They gave us air speed read-outs, which conflicted quite a bit with what we were seeing in the cockpit, and throughout the approach they continued to give us this information," said Worley. "We did a normal landing, but we did it with a priority approach and declared an emergency."

No one was injured, and the problem was pinpointed to a Pitot tube. The instrument that gives the critical air speed reading had been blocked by ice, in the freezing temperatures at 18,000 feet.

Right now it's only speculation, but faulty Pitot tubes are the suspected cause of the Air France crash.

Air France's Chief Executive said replacement Pitot tubes arrived in April, but had not yet been installed.

But officials said they're not yet convinced of that fact, and the search continues for the all-important black box that holds the answers.

"They've only got a 30 day window in which they can do this, before those black boxes fail to give off the signal that would be necessary for them to be detected and recovered," said Worley.

Since his landing in 1982, for Worley, it's about proper maintenance. He applauds the airline industry for traditionally maintaining their planes well, but said the more the public knows about their plane, the better.

"Unfortunately sometimes it takes an accident to get people's attention, then they're on top of it, and they make changes," said Worley.

Worley wrote a book about his experiences in aviation, including the Seattle-Portland flight, called "Into the Wind."

It can be found at www.amazon.com

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