HOUSTON – When you listen to the audio recording between the pilot and the controller at Hobby Airport, there are two things that stand out: The pilot is not familiar with the layout of Hobby Airport and she certainly doesn't sound like a very experienced pilot.
In fact, at one point, the tower was trying to slow down incoming air traffic to give her space, but as you can hear, it just wasn't working.
Landing is the hardest part of flying and the pilot of the single-engine plane was clearly having trouble.
11 minutes before the crash:
PILOT: "So am I turning a right base now? 52g."
TOWER: "52g, roger. Just, um, maneuver back for the straight in. I don't which way you're going now so turn back around for runway 35."
The pilot makes at least three attempts to land at Hobby, but simply can't align the plane with the runway or find the right altitude for approach
-- even when controllers clear the airspace.
TOWER: "I think you're too high, Cirrus. You might be too high. You are clear to land. There will be no other traffic runway 4, so this one will be easy."
But it wasn't, and there seems to be miscommunication as the traffic controller and the pilot trade runway 35 for runway 4 and then go back to 35.
TOWER: "Clear to land."
PILOT: "Trying to get down again. 4352g."
TOWER: "No problem."
Two minutes before the crash, essentially meaningful communication from the pilot stopped, which is a problematic situation when a 737 is inbound.
TOWER: "Um, it is going to be a little bit tight with one behind it so when you get on that downwind stay on the downwind. Advise me when you have that 737 in sight. We'll either do 4 or we might swing you around to 35."
TOWER: "Uh ma'am, uh, ma'am, uh, straighten up! Straighten up!"
It is clear the pilot cannot land the plane.
PILOT: "Turning around for 35. I'm so sorry for the confusion. 4252g."
TOWER: "That's OK. We'll get it."
The pilot of the plane was a fairly new pilot. It's not known how many hours she had under her belt, but she first became licensed in 2014.