William S. Bain, 56, of North Fort Myers, died in an aircraft accident. Born in Indianapolis, Ind, he had been a resident of North Fort Myers for one year having come from Sebring, Fla. He was an Air Force veteran, 7 year air traffic controller, and pilot with Eastern Airlines for 22 years. Captain Bain had logged over 20,000 flight hours and held an Airline Transport Pilot certificate (issued in 1979 when he became a captain) with a DC-9 jet aircraft type rating in addition to commercial pilot single engine land and single engine sea, a turbojet & turbo propeller powered aircraft flight engineer rating (issued in 1968), as well as an Airframe & Powerplant mechanic certificate (issued in 1958). He was also a single engine and multi-engine aircraft flight instructor and an instrument flight instructor (issued in 1986).
On the morning of November 6th, Bain was commuting by air in his Piper Apache multi-engine airplane (N2185P) from Pine Shadows airpark (94FL) to Tampa Airport/KTPA where he was scheduled to fly Eastern flight 164 to Newark. It should have been a short flight of less than an hour. Shortly after take off around 6:12am, Bain contacted flight service and received a weather briefing that reported cloud obscuration and indefinite ceiling with only 1/16mi visibility in thick fog at Tampa. The runway visual range/RVR on 36L was varying from 1,000 to 1600 ft in forward visibility and a minimum of 1,800 ft was required for landing if operating under Federal Aviation Regulations Part 121 (airline) or Part 135 (charter). Since this flight was under Part 91 (personal/general aviation), it was allowed to execute an approach down to the publish Decision Altitude for 36L (200ft above the runway), regardless of the forward visibility broadcast on the airport weather, and if the runway environment or lights were in sight, a landing could be made. Such approaches were not uncommon in general aviation and were nicknamed "look see" approaches. Bain made two instrument landing system/ILS guided approaches. The first attempt was unsuccessful and he went around for another try. Visibility midfield had temporarily gone up to RVR 3000 feet but that was likely due to a jet departure stirring up the fog. On the second approach, at 6:58am, the Piper was cleared for the ILS to runway 36L. The RVR was reported 600' at touchdown, 1000 feet midrunway and 800 feet at the end (rollout). RVR midpoint later deteriorated to 800 feet. At 7:05am, the Piper touched down on taxiway W ('whiskey') about about 400ft to the right (east) of and paralleling runway 36L. It then collided with Pan Am 301 bound for Miami that was going out to the runway southbound on W taxiway. Although the captain of the Pan Am Boeing 727 steered at the aircraft to the right when he saw the Piper coming at him, a collision was unavoidable. The Piper hit the nose of the 727 and then slid under its left wing, breaking up, coming to rest behind the jet and burned. Although Bain received head injuries from the collision, the actual cause of death was determined to be from the burns sustained in the post crash fire according to the medical examiner. Captain Bain, was scheduled to depart to Newark about an hour after the crash. However, at the time of the accident he had about 15 minutes to be on time for his preflight check-in, according to the NTSB. Thus, a contributing cause to the accident and his decision to continue a landing in unsuitable weather was determined to be the pressure to make it to work on time. The NTSB toxicology report was negative for any impairing drugs or alcohol, only nicotine as he was a smoker. As a result of its investigation, the NTSB recommended that 14 CFR Part 91 be amended to prohibit a pilot from executing an instrument approach (ILS) to a runway equipped with a runway visual range system that is indicating a visibility below the published landing minimum visibility. [NTSB report AAR/87-06, digitized and available on Google Books]
"[Flying] was just his whole life," said his wife, Barbara Bain, who is also a pilot. Bain had been flying for 40 years and dreamed about it earlier, according to his wife. "He made model airplanes when he was 4. He learned to fly when he was 16," she said. Bain took flying lessons while he was a line boy at an Indianapolis airport, giving planes directions or helping them refuel. "His paycheck he'd sign off for flying lessons," said his wife. When he became more experienced, Bain began teaching other people to fly. He once ran a flight school in Lake Placid in south central Florida. Nothing made him more proud, Mrs. Bain said, "than to see his student fly off in an airplane." . The couple lived in Miami for about 20 years, where Bain worked as an FAA air traffic controller, flew for Eastern, and taught flying lessons. They had two children. Their daughter lives in Tampa and their son is a pilot for Air South in Miami. Within the last year, the Bains moved to the Pine Shadows Air Park, a new subdivision in North Fort Myers. They imported a log cabin home from Tennessee and set it beside a lake amid pine trees. They built a hangar for their planes. They "were warm and friendly people," said Jean Whitty, a neighbor whose husband also is a pilot. "You can't be prepared for something like this," she said. "When you're living with a pilot you always have that fear in the back of your mind but you never think anything is really going to happen." Thursday morning, Mrs. Bain was in a state of disbelief, Mrs. Whitty said. "She told me, 'He was here talking to me this morning. Now the rest of my life is going to be different.' " [Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, 07 Nov 1986, Fri ]
He was survived by his wife, Barbara Barber Bain; one son, William S. Bain III of Miami, Fla.; one daughter, Teresa K. Bain of Tampa, Fla.; one sister, Shirley Wood of Denver, Colo.; two grandchildren, Austin and Lucas Payor, both of Tampa.
On the morning of November 6th, Bain was commuting by air in his Piper Apache multi-engine airplane (N2185P) from Pine Shadows airpark (94FL) to Tampa Airport/KTPA where he was scheduled to fly Eastern flight 164 to Newark. It should have been a short flight of less than an hour. Shortly after take off around 6:12am, Bain contacted flight service and received a weather briefing that reported cloud obscuration and indefinite ceiling with only 1/16mi visibility in thick fog at Tampa. The runway visual range/RVR on 36L was varying from 1,000 to 1600 ft in forward visibility and a minimum of 1,800 ft was required for landing if operating under Federal Aviation Regulations Part 121 (airline) or Part 135 (charter). Since this flight was under Part 91 (personal/general aviation), it was allowed to execute an approach down to the publish Decision Altitude for 36L (200ft above the runway), regardless of the forward visibility broadcast on the airport weather, and if the runway environment or lights were in sight, a landing could be made. Such approaches were not uncommon in general aviation and were nicknamed "look see" approaches. Bain made two instrument landing system/ILS guided approaches. The first attempt was unsuccessful and he went around for another try. Visibility midfield had temporarily gone up to RVR 3000 feet but that was likely due to a jet departure stirring up the fog. On the second approach, at 6:58am, the Piper was cleared for the ILS to runway 36L. The RVR was reported 600' at touchdown, 1000 feet midrunway and 800 feet at the end (rollout). RVR midpoint later deteriorated to 800 feet. At 7:05am, the Piper touched down on taxiway W ('whiskey') about about 400ft to the right (east) of and paralleling runway 36L. It then collided with Pan Am 301 bound for Miami that was going out to the runway southbound on W taxiway. Although the captain of the Pan Am Boeing 727 steered at the aircraft to the right when he saw the Piper coming at him, a collision was unavoidable. The Piper hit the nose of the 727 and then slid under its left wing, breaking up, coming to rest behind the jet and burned. Although Bain received head injuries from the collision, the actual cause of death was determined to be from the burns sustained in the post crash fire according to the medical examiner. Captain Bain, was scheduled to depart to Newark about an hour after the crash. However, at the time of the accident he had about 15 minutes to be on time for his preflight check-in, according to the NTSB. Thus, a contributing cause to the accident and his decision to continue a landing in unsuitable weather was determined to be the pressure to make it to work on time. The NTSB toxicology report was negative for any impairing drugs or alcohol, only nicotine as he was a smoker. As a result of its investigation, the NTSB recommended that 14 CFR Part 91 be amended to prohibit a pilot from executing an instrument approach (ILS) to a runway equipped with a runway visual range system that is indicating a visibility below the published landing minimum visibility. [NTSB report AAR/87-06, digitized and available on Google Books]
"[Flying] was just his whole life," said his wife, Barbara Bain, who is also a pilot. Bain had been flying for 40 years and dreamed about it earlier, according to his wife. "He made model airplanes when he was 4. He learned to fly when he was 16," she said. Bain took flying lessons while he was a line boy at an Indianapolis airport, giving planes directions or helping them refuel. "His paycheck he'd sign off for flying lessons," said his wife. When he became more experienced, Bain began teaching other people to fly. He once ran a flight school in Lake Placid in south central Florida. Nothing made him more proud, Mrs. Bain said, "than to see his student fly off in an airplane." . The couple lived in Miami for about 20 years, where Bain worked as an FAA air traffic controller, flew for Eastern, and taught flying lessons. They had two children. Their daughter lives in Tampa and their son is a pilot for Air South in Miami. Within the last year, the Bains moved to the Pine Shadows Air Park, a new subdivision in North Fort Myers. They imported a log cabin home from Tennessee and set it beside a lake amid pine trees. They built a hangar for their planes. They "were warm and friendly people," said Jean Whitty, a neighbor whose husband also is a pilot. "You can't be prepared for something like this," she said. "When you're living with a pilot you always have that fear in the back of your mind but you never think anything is really going to happen." Thursday morning, Mrs. Bain was in a state of disbelief, Mrs. Whitty said. "She told me, 'He was here talking to me this morning. Now the rest of my life is going to be different.' " [Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, 07 Nov 1986, Fri ]
He was survived by his wife, Barbara Barber Bain; one son, William S. Bain III of Miami, Fla.; one daughter, Teresa K. Bain of Tampa, Fla.; one sister, Shirley Wood of Denver, Colo.; two grandchildren, Austin and Lucas Payor, both of Tampa.
William S. Bain, 56, of North Fort Myers, died in an aircraft accident. Born in Indianapolis, Ind, he had been a resident of North Fort Myers for one year having come from Sebring, Fla. He was an Air Force veteran, 7 year air traffic controller, and pilot with Eastern Airlines for 22 years. Captain Bain had logged over 20,000 flight hours and held an Airline Transport Pilot certificate (issued in 1979 when he became a captain) with a DC-9 jet aircraft type rating in addition to commercial pilot single engine land and single engine sea, a turbojet & turbo propeller powered aircraft flight engineer rating (issued in 1968), as well as an Airframe & Powerplant mechanic certificate (issued in 1958). He was also a single engine and multi-engine aircraft flight instructor and an instrument flight instructor (issued in 1986).
On the morning of November 6th, Bain was commuting by air in his Piper Apache multi-engine airplane (N2185P) from Pine Shadows airpark (94FL) to Tampa Airport/KTPA where he was scheduled to fly Eastern flight 164 to Newark. It should have been a short flight of less than an hour. Shortly after take off around 6:12am, Bain contacted flight service and received a weather briefing that reported cloud obscuration and indefinite ceiling with only 1/16mi visibility in thick fog at Tampa. The runway visual range/RVR on 36L was varying from 1,000 to 1600 ft in forward visibility and a minimum of 1,800 ft was required for landing if operating under Federal Aviation Regulations Part 121 (airline) or Part 135 (charter). Since this flight was under Part 91 (personal/general aviation), it was allowed to execute an approach down to the publish Decision Altitude for 36L (200ft above the runway), regardless of the forward visibility broadcast on the airport weather, and if the runway environment or lights were in sight, a landing could be made. Such approaches were not uncommon in general aviation and were nicknamed "look see" approaches. Bain made two instrument landing system/ILS guided approaches. The first attempt was unsuccessful and he went around for another try. Visibility midfield had temporarily gone up to RVR 3000 feet but that was likely due to a jet departure stirring up the fog. On the second approach, at 6:58am, the Piper was cleared for the ILS to runway 36L. The RVR was reported 600' at touchdown, 1000 feet midrunway and 800 feet at the end (rollout). RVR midpoint later deteriorated to 800 feet. At 7:05am, the Piper touched down on taxiway W ('whiskey') about about 400ft to the right (east) of and paralleling runway 36L. It then collided with Pan Am 301 bound for Miami that was going out to the runway southbound on W taxiway. Although the captain of the Pan Am Boeing 727 steered at the aircraft to the right when he saw the Piper coming at him, a collision was unavoidable. The Piper hit the nose of the 727 and then slid under its left wing, breaking up, coming to rest behind the jet and burned. Although Bain received head injuries from the collision, the actual cause of death was determined to be from the burns sustained in the post crash fire according to the medical examiner. Captain Bain, was scheduled to depart to Newark about an hour after the crash. However, at the time of the accident he had about 15 minutes to be on time for his preflight check-in, according to the NTSB. Thus, a contributing cause to the accident and his decision to continue a landing in unsuitable weather was determined to be the pressure to make it to work on time. The NTSB toxicology report was negative for any impairing drugs or alcohol, only nicotine as he was a smoker. As a result of its investigation, the NTSB recommended that 14 CFR Part 91 be amended to prohibit a pilot from executing an instrument approach (ILS) to a runway equipped with a runway visual range system that is indicating a visibility below the published landing minimum visibility. [NTSB report AAR/87-06, digitized and available on Google Books]
"[Flying] was just his whole life," said his wife, Barbara Bain, who is also a pilot. Bain had been flying for 40 years and dreamed about it earlier, according to his wife. "He made model airplanes when he was 4. He learned to fly when he was 16," she said. Bain took flying lessons while he was a line boy at an Indianapolis airport, giving planes directions or helping them refuel. "His paycheck he'd sign off for flying lessons," said his wife. When he became more experienced, Bain began teaching other people to fly. He once ran a flight school in Lake Placid in south central Florida. Nothing made him more proud, Mrs. Bain said, "than to see his student fly off in an airplane." . The couple lived in Miami for about 20 years, where Bain worked as an FAA air traffic controller, flew for Eastern, and taught flying lessons. They had two children. Their daughter lives in Tampa and their son is a pilot for Air South in Miami. Within the last year, the Bains moved to the Pine Shadows Air Park, a new subdivision in North Fort Myers. They imported a log cabin home from Tennessee and set it beside a lake amid pine trees. They built a hangar for their planes. They "were warm and friendly people," said Jean Whitty, a neighbor whose husband also is a pilot. "You can't be prepared for something like this," she said. "When you're living with a pilot you always have that fear in the back of your mind but you never think anything is really going to happen." Thursday morning, Mrs. Bain was in a state of disbelief, Mrs. Whitty said. "She told me, 'He was here talking to me this morning. Now the rest of my life is going to be different.' " [Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, 07 Nov 1986, Fri ]
He was survived by his wife, Barbara Barber Bain; one son, William S. Bain III of Miami, Fla.; one daughter, Teresa K. Bain of Tampa, Fla.; one sister, Shirley Wood of Denver, Colo.; two grandchildren, Austin and Lucas Payor, both of Tampa.
On the morning of November 6th, Bain was commuting by air in his Piper Apache multi-engine airplane (N2185P) from Pine Shadows airpark (94FL) to Tampa Airport/KTPA where he was scheduled to fly Eastern flight 164 to Newark. It should have been a short flight of less than an hour. Shortly after take off around 6:12am, Bain contacted flight service and received a weather briefing that reported cloud obscuration and indefinite ceiling with only 1/16mi visibility in thick fog at Tampa. The runway visual range/RVR on 36L was varying from 1,000 to 1600 ft in forward visibility and a minimum of 1,800 ft was required for landing if operating under Federal Aviation Regulations Part 121 (airline) or Part 135 (charter). Since this flight was under Part 91 (personal/general aviation), it was allowed to execute an approach down to the publish Decision Altitude for 36L (200ft above the runway), regardless of the forward visibility broadcast on the airport weather, and if the runway environment or lights were in sight, a landing could be made. Such approaches were not uncommon in general aviation and were nicknamed "look see" approaches. Bain made two instrument landing system/ILS guided approaches. The first attempt was unsuccessful and he went around for another try. Visibility midfield had temporarily gone up to RVR 3000 feet but that was likely due to a jet departure stirring up the fog. On the second approach, at 6:58am, the Piper was cleared for the ILS to runway 36L. The RVR was reported 600' at touchdown, 1000 feet midrunway and 800 feet at the end (rollout). RVR midpoint later deteriorated to 800 feet. At 7:05am, the Piper touched down on taxiway W ('whiskey') about about 400ft to the right (east) of and paralleling runway 36L. It then collided with Pan Am 301 bound for Miami that was going out to the runway southbound on W taxiway. Although the captain of the Pan Am Boeing 727 steered at the aircraft to the right when he saw the Piper coming at him, a collision was unavoidable. The Piper hit the nose of the 727 and then slid under its left wing, breaking up, coming to rest behind the jet and burned. Although Bain received head injuries from the collision, the actual cause of death was determined to be from the burns sustained in the post crash fire according to the medical examiner. Captain Bain, was scheduled to depart to Newark about an hour after the crash. However, at the time of the accident he had about 15 minutes to be on time for his preflight check-in, according to the NTSB. Thus, a contributing cause to the accident and his decision to continue a landing in unsuitable weather was determined to be the pressure to make it to work on time. The NTSB toxicology report was negative for any impairing drugs or alcohol, only nicotine as he was a smoker. As a result of its investigation, the NTSB recommended that 14 CFR Part 91 be amended to prohibit a pilot from executing an instrument approach (ILS) to a runway equipped with a runway visual range system that is indicating a visibility below the published landing minimum visibility. [NTSB report AAR/87-06, digitized and available on Google Books]
"[Flying] was just his whole life," said his wife, Barbara Bain, who is also a pilot. Bain had been flying for 40 years and dreamed about it earlier, according to his wife. "He made model airplanes when he was 4. He learned to fly when he was 16," she said. Bain took flying lessons while he was a line boy at an Indianapolis airport, giving planes directions or helping them refuel. "His paycheck he'd sign off for flying lessons," said his wife. When he became more experienced, Bain began teaching other people to fly. He once ran a flight school in Lake Placid in south central Florida. Nothing made him more proud, Mrs. Bain said, "than to see his student fly off in an airplane." . The couple lived in Miami for about 20 years, where Bain worked as an FAA air traffic controller, flew for Eastern, and taught flying lessons. They had two children. Their daughter lives in Tampa and their son is a pilot for Air South in Miami. Within the last year, the Bains moved to the Pine Shadows Air Park, a new subdivision in North Fort Myers. They imported a log cabin home from Tennessee and set it beside a lake amid pine trees. They built a hangar for their planes. They "were warm and friendly people," said Jean Whitty, a neighbor whose husband also is a pilot. "You can't be prepared for something like this," she said. "When you're living with a pilot you always have that fear in the back of your mind but you never think anything is really going to happen." Thursday morning, Mrs. Bain was in a state of disbelief, Mrs. Whitty said. "She told me, 'He was here talking to me this morning. Now the rest of my life is going to be different.' " [Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, 07 Nov 1986, Fri ]
He was survived by his wife, Barbara Barber Bain; one son, William S. Bain III of Miami, Fla.; one daughter, Teresa K. Bain of Tampa, Fla.; one sister, Shirley Wood of Denver, Colo.; two grandchildren, Austin and Lucas Payor, both of Tampa.
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