Air Midwest Flight 5481
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| Occurrence summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 8 January 2003 |
| Type | Overweight, maintenance error |
| Site | Charlotte, North Carolina |
| Passengers | 19 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Injuries | 1 (on ground) |
| Fatalities | 21 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Beechcraft 1900D |
| Operator | Air Midwest |
| Tail number | N233YV |
| Flight origin | Charlotte/Douglas International Airport |
| Destination | Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport |
Air Midwest Flight 5481 operating as US Airways Express Flight 5481, was a flight from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina, near the cities of Greenville and Spartanburg; on 8 January 2003 a Beechcraft 1900D operated by Air Midwest as US Airways Express under a franchise agreement used for the route crashed into a US Airways hangar and burst into flames 37 seconds after leaving Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.
All nineteen passengers and two pilots aboard died in the accident, and one person on the ground received minor injuries. None of the US Airways employees working in the hangar received injuries.[1] No flight attendants were on the flight because the Beech 1900D aircraft, with 19 seats, is exempt from US Federal regulations requiring a flight attendant. Operating without a flight attendant is considered normal for these aircraft.
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[edit] Crew and passengers
This is a list by residence [2]:
| Residence | Passengers | Crew | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bahamas |
3 | 0 | 3 |
 Canada |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 India |
2 | 0 | 2 |
 Portugal |
1 | 0 | 1 |
 United States |
12 | 2 | 14 |
| Total | 19 | 2 | 21 |
The resident of the Azores, Portugal was a U.S. citizen.[3][4]
Katie Leslie served as the pilot and Jonathan Gibbs served as the first officer; both served from the Charlotte station.[2][5][6]
[edit] Cause of the crash
At first it was believed that a fuel cap on the runway caused the crash, because 3 years earlier a Concorde aircraft crashed in Paris killing 113 people due to debris on the runway (See Air France Flight 4590). But close inspection of the fuel cap revealed no significant damage.
Another possibility was that Flight 5481 encountered wake turbulence, the theory was backed-up when investigators discovered a Bombardier CRJ took off earlier on the same runway. One year earlier, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed when it encountered turbulence killing 265 people, but the flight path of flight 5481 did not follow the CRJ.
The NTSB determined the crash to have been the result of two separate issues.
After take-off, the plane climbed steeply before stalling, despite both pilots pushing the control column forward. The aircraft's most recent service involved adjusting the elevator control cable, and was performed two nights before the crash at a repair facility located at Tri-State Airport in Huntington, West Virginia. During the investigation, it emerged that the mechanic who worked on the elevator cables had never worked on this type of aircraft. Investigation revealed that turnbuckles controlling tension on the cables to the elevators had been set incorrectly, resulting in insufficient elevator travel, leading to the pilots not having sufficient pitch control. Although a post-adjustment control test was normally run to ensure proper operation, the maintenance supervisor who was instructing the mechanic decided to skip this step. The NTSB noted that the FAA were aware of the "serious deficiencies" in the training procedures at the facility, but had done nothing to correct them.[7]
Although the pilots had totaled up the take-off weight of the aircraft before the flight and determined it to be within limits, the plane was actually overloaded and out of balance, due to the use of incorrect (but FAA approved) passenger weight estimates. When checked, the NTSB found that the estimates were over 20 pounds (9 kg) lighter than the actual weight of an average passenger. After checking the actual weight of baggage retrieved from the crash site, and passengers (based on information from next-of-kin and the medical examiner), it was found that the aircraft was actually 600 pounds (272Kg) above its maximum allowable take-off weight, with its center of gravity 5% rear of allowable limits.
It was determined that neither problem alone would have caused the loss of control, which explains why it departed Huntington, West Virginia safely.
[edit] Aftermath
As a result of the weight issues discovered, the FAA planned to investigate and potentially revise estimated weight values, something that was not done since 1936. Air Midwest now use an average weight of 200 pounds(90.7Kg) per passenger, but the NTSB suggests that airlines use actual weights instead of average. 70% of small air carriers still use average.[4] Air Midwest publicly apologized for the incident after the family of crash victim Christiana Grace Shepherd pressured the airline to do so.[4][8][9]
[edit] Dramatization
The subject of this crash was featured in a Mayday (Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency) episode entitled "Dead Weight," first broadcast in the United Kingdom on the National Geographic Channel in early 2008.
[edit] Bloopers
In the Mayday (Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency) episode entitled "Dead Weight", you will find a mouse cursor on the artificial horizon displayed for a split second at about 29:30 into the episode.
[edit] References
- ^ "AIR MIDWEST FLIGHT 5481 NOTIFICATION #2", US Airways
- ^ a b "AIR MIDWEST 5481 CREW AND PASSENGER NAME LIST AMPLIFICATION," US Airways
- ^ "More families sue airlines, maintenance companies and plane maker in Charlotte US Airways / Air Midwest crash", Baum Hedlund
- ^ a b c "Dead Weight", Mayday
- ^ "AIR MIDWEST FLIGHT 5481 CREW AND PARTIAL PASSENGER NAME LIST NOTIFICATION #4", US Airways
- ^ "AIR MIDWEST FLIGHT 5481 CREW AND PASSENGER NAME LIST UPDATE NOTIFICATION #5", US Airways
- ^ "LOSS OF PITCH CONTROL CAUSED FATAL AIRLINER CRASH IN CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA LAST YEAR", NTSB SB-04-03, 26 February 2004
- ^ Hedlund, Paul J. and Ronald L. M. Goldman. "Another Level of Justice: The Public Apology." Andrews Litigation Reporter (at Baum Hedlund Law). 25 April 2006. Volume 24, Issue 5.
- ^ "Companies Accept Responsibility and Publicly Apologize to the Families of the 8 January 2003 Air Midwest Flight 5481 Crash in Charlotte, North Carolina." Baum Hedlund Law. Accessed 27 October 2008.
[edit] External links
- STATEMENT BY US AIRWAYS PRESIDENT AND CEO DAVID SIEGEL ON AIR MIDWEST ACCIDENT US Airways
- Incident Involving US Airways Express Flight 5481 Operated by Air Midwest, Inc. Mesa Airlines
- Investigation from National Transportation Safety Board
- Investigators check black boxes from N.C. plane crash
- "NTSB report into the accident" (PDF). http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2004/AAR0401.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-03-05.
- More About Flight 5481 Passengers, Crew
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