John Watson

Hi Nev

My name's John Watson. In 2003 I did a report on MDX for John Tonitto, using the final radar fix and the pilot's likely actions / track in the following few minutes until impact, to produce a dead reckoning area of probability of the MDX crash site. This was of course in the steepest terrain and heaviest vegetation available.

I excluded all except verified technical evidence, ie., excluding reports of aircraft sightings and engine sounds, and used my commercial flying background (which includes about 1000 hours on C210's) for some understanding of this kind of situation.

I have just read, with interest, Dave Whiteman's 18 Sep 2008 blog post. Dave would have a lot to offer. He is correct in stating that Ms O'Hare did not see MDX as it was at 9000' at the time. As well, my own calculations indicated a required ground speed of >250 knots to get to her location between positive radar fixes, ie., her report cannot be used. She would have seen one of at least two aircraft in the area that night; in that era, light aircraft commuting was far more common.