Instructor faulted in
’01 Lanai plane crash

WAILUKU >> The probable cause of a 2001 airplane crash on Lanai that killed an Oahu student pilot was inadequate planning and supervision by the flight instructor, the National Transportation Safety Board has determined.

The NTSB said the instructor's remedial action was also "delayed," resulting in the crash.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew Monczynski, 23, a Navy aircraft electronics technician who had a Marine Corps wife and 1-month-old daughter, died in the crash on June 14, 2001.

The single-engine Piper Cherokee PA 28-140, owned by Jahn Mueller of Mueller Aviation in Honolulu, crashed on a plateau at the 1,760-foot level about 4 1/2 miles northwest of Lanai Airport.

The certified flight instructor, Matthew McGurk, then 22, was with Monczynski on a night training flight from Honolulu to the Kapalua-West Maui Airport. McGurk was injured but was found at the scene about five hours after the crash.

Monczynski, who had about 15 hours of flight time in training, took off from Honolulu at 7:45 p.m., after filing a plan to fly by visual flight rules.

A preflight specialist had advised that flying by visual flight rules was not recommended along a portion of the flight corridor, the NTSB said last week.

Scattered to broken cloud layers were forecast from 2,000 feet to 6,500 feet, with a few clouds at 1,000 feet up to 8,000 feet, it said.

Monczynski filed a flight plan for a cruise at an altitude of 3,000 feet between Oahu and Maui.

During the flight, he asked the Federal Aviation Administration if the filed destination airport was public or private, and he was advised it was private. He canceled the flight and indicated they were returning to the departure airport.

Weather conditions deteriorated, and the instructor told the pilot to make a right turn, but the pilot made a left turn, descending into a cloud, the NTSB said.

The instructor took control of the airplane and started to climb, but the airplane hit the ground, the NTSB said.