The NTSB released its findings for the crash a short time after it occurred. Such final reports, however, take a year to complete.
A great deal of emphasis is given to whether the pilot was drunk. As far as the FAA is concerned (Federal Aviation Regulation 91.17), a pilot may not fly if he has consumed *any* alcoholic beverage within eight hours of flight. They are very strict on this, so one drop of whiskey would be considered "consumption," as would (believe it or not) a non-alcoholic beer, because, they say, it still contains some alcohol, even though it is a very small amount. As for blood alcohol content, while most states use .08% by weight as the criteria, the FAA uses .04%. Therefore, a pilot could easily be in violation of this regulation without being drunk. A pilot charged under this Part would also be charged with "careless and reckless operation."
According to Alden Tuller, the pilot had poor flying skills, because he was "prohibited from flying in the clouds." Actually, the first license a pilot gets does not enable him to fly in clouds. Pilots are prohibited from flying in clouds unless they are under "Instrument Flight Rules," and they can not operate under IFR unless they have an "Instrument Rating." Many good experienced pilots do not have instrument ratings, and as long as they do not fly in the clouds, they can be safe, legal, and proficient. The fact that a pilot does not possess an instrument rating, therefore, should not be taken to mean that he was unskilled or inexperienced.
The TNT&G team stated that an Air Traffic Controller informed the pilot about the bad weather he would encounter, but they could not prove it, because the warning was not on tape. In reality, such tapes are saved for 30 days.
The TNT&G team saw a need to prove, if they could, that the pilot had been issued the warning about the bad weather by an Air Traffic Controller. In reality, the pilot, and not the Air Traffic Controller, is responsible for obtaining the weather, using all means available. Weather changes, and if a pilot is not in contact with Air Traffic Control, he would not necessarily know about them, but the responsibility rests with the pilot, not ATC.
The TNT&G team portrayed the pilot as having weak flying skills. He must have been a cut above the average, however, because of the complex multi-engine airplane he was flying. A pilot generally gets his training in small single-engine planes and obtains a license to fly them. (This does not necessarily apply to military pilots.) After he builds up his experience and flying skills in single-engine planes, he will progress to multi-engine planes, and he will get his license upgraded to fly them. Training in multi-engine planes is usually done in relatively simple ones, but when one has the money, he would later get into a more complex plane, such as the one the pilot flew in this episode.