AVAir Flight 3378
Raleigh-Durham Airport | |
| Destination | Richmond International Airport |
|---|---|
| Occupants | 12 |
| Passengers | 10 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Fatalities | 12 |
| Survivors | 0 |
AVAir Flight 3378 was a scheduled flight from Raleigh–Durham International Airport to Richmond International Airport which crashed after takeoff from Raleigh-Durham International Airport late on the night of February 19, 1988. All 12 people on board were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The weather at the time of the accident included a low ceiling and low visibility.[3] The flight crew consisted of Captain Walter R. Cole Jr., 38, and First Officer Kathleen P. Digan, 28.[4]: 25 The aircraft did not carry a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) or a flight data recorder (FDR) and was not required to at the time.[4]: 13
AVAir Flight 3378 took off from
According to the local controller, he heard but could not see the immediate previous plane, an American MD-80, depart. He saw the MD-80 on radar and cleared AVAir 3378 for departure. He briefly saw AVAir 3378 in the air, observed it on radar, and then cleared a Piedmont airplane to depart. In the next 3 minutes, he cleared a Cessna to land, coordinated with the departure controller, and attempted to locate AVAir 3378. At 2131:45, the RDU local controller alerted the emergency systems.[4]
This accident was rated as unsurvivable by the NTSB due to extreme destruction of the aircraft.[4]
Investigation
The NTSB published its report into the disaster on December 13, 1988. They found that the preliminary cause of the accident was the failure of the
In 1993, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) filed a petition against the findings of the investigation and asked it to be reconsidered. The NTSB accepted the petition in part. The causes of the crash were changed to: "The probable cause of this accident was the failure of flight crew to maintain a proper flightpath. Contributing factors were the ineffective management and supervision of flight crew training and operations and inappropriate FAA surveillance of AVAir."[4][2]
Memorial
In May 2016, a memorial was dedicated at Carpenter Park in Cary, NC, USA to the passengers, crew, families, and responders of both Flight 3378 and Flagship Airlines Flight 3379, which crashed near RDU Airport in 1994.[5]
References
- ^ "Aviation Investigation Final Report DCA88MA032". National Transportation Safety Board. Retrieved February 6, 2025.
- ^ a b c d Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft Accident Swearingen Metroliner III N622AV". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. Archived from the original on April 18, 2005. Retrieved June 3, 2012.
- ^ a b "American Airlines plane crashes since 1970". airsafe.com. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Aircraft Accident Report: Avair Inc. Flight 3378 Fairchild Metro III, SA227 AC, N622AV, Cary, North Carolina, February 19, 1988" (PDF). ntsb.gov. National Transportation Safety Board. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2013. - Copy at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University.
- ^ "Cary memorial names fallen from pair of Triangle plane crashes". WRAL-TV. May 14, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
