Pilot error by Yigal Brightman was responsible for the fatal crash of the Piper Navajo plane near Eilat on August 1, states Yitzhak Raz, the chief air accidents investigator at the Ministry of Transport. Brightman was killed in the crash and two passengers were injured.
Raz found that Brightman accidentally caused one of the plane's two engines to shut down, when he inadvertently switched the engine's fuel knob to "off", causing it to plunge to the ground. He said that the propeller continued to spin, and the shutting down of the engine was not felt or noticed.
Raz found that, before the accident, Brightman was making a second attempt to land, apparently because of a misunderstanding of the air traffic controller's instructions to the plane behind him. He opened the throttles to both engines to full power, but since only the left engine was operating, the resulting asymmetry caused the plane to spin out of control.
Brightman founded the CPA firm Brightman & Co. in 1972. In 1994, the firm became an affiliate of Deloitte Touch Tohmatsu., and expanded over the years by merging with other firms. In 1999, it changed its name to Deloitte Brightman Almagor, following the merger with Almagor & Co., and in 2008, it merged with Zohar & Co.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 27, 2013
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