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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has just published a revised Aviation Investigation Final Report for a tragic aircraft accident that occurred in Indiana in 2018. In in a very unusual turn of events, this new report reverses a previous probable cause.
"…the available evidence for this accident does not sufficiently show that the ATLAS was the cause of the in-flight upset from which the pilot was unable to recover," states the NTSB in its formal response to the petition by Tamarack Aerospace Group, the developer of the Active Technology Load Alleviation System (ATLAS) wing modifications.
The response also states that "…the NTSB agrees with the petitioner that the evidence is also insufficient to conclude that (1) the left actuator was in an extended position at the time of initial impact and (2) the ATLAS caused the left rolling moment; the NTSB has revised the report accordingly."
"Tamarack is very pleased that the NTSB has decided to grant our Petition for Reconsideration concerning this 2018 accident and taken steps to correct multiple technical errors in the original investigation. This reversal shows the NTSB has the courage, professionalism and proper process to make these corrections, and for that we applaud the NTSB," says president Jacob Klinginsmith. "Our growing fleet of nearly 200 CitationJet customers see the safety, performance and fuel saving sustainability benefits of our technology on every flight. Our customers know that the Active Winglet upgrade is safe, reliable and consistently brings a lot of value to Cessna CitationJets and other upgraded aircraft."
The revised Final Report is a response to the January 2022 Petition for Reconsideration submitted by Tamarack, which cited multiple factual errors in the NTSB Final Report published in late 2021. The result of that report was a conclusion that could not be supported by the facts of that accident. Tamarack says it applauds the NTSB for studying the objective and verifiable facts and data available and using correct information to revise the probable cause.
