Tom, just for clarity at the time of the Micco accident they got
the reporting correct as to being a Micco owned by Jerry Dale of
Sportsman. Flown by Dewey Conroy of Pacific Coast Avionics and his
instructor who mastered the landing.
The most recent piece was indeed poorly researched.
The Columbia 400 incident in the fog was indeed quite tragic and
yes they were reporting a Lancair down at KPDX with not response from Cessna.
PR and comments need to be professional laundered.
John Cox
From: Lancair Mailing List
[mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Tom Gourley
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 6:48 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Errors in Lancair accident report by KGW TV
Earlier today (Tues, 9/26) I saw a news video
on KGW's website (www.kgw.com in
Portland, OR) that really made me angry. The video started out with an
interview of a Lancair pilot (Mike Cannon) who made a hard landing at
Troutdale airport (KTTD). The landing gear on his 320/360 collapsed but
he was uninjured. That part of the report wasn't bad. But then KGW
made a big deal about recent Lancair accidents in the
Portland area, showing video clips of coverage of three other accidents.
What really hacked me off was two of the accidents weren't Lancairs. One
was a Columbia 400 (I know, very similar, but still not a Lancair) and the
other was a Micco! The Micco was another gear collapse on landing, this
one at Aurora (KUAO), that was captured on video; looked like from a
helicopter. As I was watching the video of the Micco's left gear
collapsing the news reader was telling the viewing public that it was a
Lancair, similar to the one involved in today's hard landing at
Troutdale. I couldn't believe it! Then I thought about it and I
could believe it. The news media doesn't seem to have any interest in
facts or accuracy, especially when it involves GA airplanes.
So if the news screws up aviation
coverage here in Portland I'm sure they're doing it in other places. I'm
not sure there's much we can do about it, but maybe if enough people complained
it might do some good. I sent KGW a complaint email, detailing their
errors. Predictably I got a form letter response that didn't really say
anything. I did send email to Joe and Kim at Lancair about
KGW's bad reporting.