Air Midwest Flight 5481
Beechcraft 1900D | |
Operator | Air Midwest d/b/a US Airways Express |
---|---|
IATA flight No. | ZV5481 |
ICAO flight No. | AMW5481 |
Call sign | AIR MIDWEST 5481 |
Registration | N233YV |
Flight origin | Charlotte Douglas International Airport |
Destination | Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport |
Occupants | 21 |
Passengers | 19 |
Crew | 2 |
Fatalities | 21 |
Survivors | 0 |
Ground casualties | |
Ground injuries | 1 |
Air Midwest Flight 5481 was a Beechcraft 1900D on a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina. On the morning of January 8, 2003, the Beechcraft stalled while departing Charlotte Douglas International Airport and crashed into an aircraft hangar, killing all 21 passengers and crew aboard and injuring one person on the ground.
Accident
Flight information
Air Midwest Flight 5481 (operating as a US Airways Express flight under a franchise agreement with US Airways) was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Charlotte Douglas International Airport near Charlotte, North Carolina, to Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina. On January 8, 2003, Flight 5481 was operated by a Beechcraft 1900D (registration number N233YV[2]).[1]: 1 [3] The aircraft was originally delivered new to Air Midwest in 1996, and had accumulated 15,003 flight hours at the time of the crash.[1]: 14
Final tally of passenger nationalities | |||
---|---|---|---|
Nationality | Passengers | Crew | Total |
Bahamas | 3 | 0 | 3 |
India | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Canada | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Portugal | 1 | 0 | 1 |
United States | 12 | 2 | 14 |
Total | 19 | 2 | 21 |
Two crew members and 19 passengers were aboard the Beechcraft. The two crew members and 12 passengers were American; the rest were from different nationalities.[4] The crew consisted of Captain Catherine "Katie" Leslie (age 25) and First Officer Jonathan Gibbs (age 27). Leslie was the youngest captain flying for the airline at that time, and had accrued 1,865 hours total company flying time, including 1,100 hours as the pilot-in-command of a Beechcraft 1900D. Gibbs had 706 hours of flying time in Beechcraft 1900D aircraft. Both pilots were based in Charlotte.[1]: 9–10 [4][5][6]
Departure and crash
On the morning of January 8, 2003, ramp agents loaded 23 checked bags onto Flight 5481, including two unusually heavy bags.[1]: 1 The flight crew completed their preflight checklists, including center of gravity (CG) checks.[1]: 2
Flight 5481 left the gate about 08:30 Eastern Standard Time.[a] At 08:37, ground controllers cleared Flight 5481 to taxi to runway 18R for departure. At 08:46, the tower controller cleared Flight 5481 for takeoff, and the pilots applied takeoff power and began their takeoff roll.[1]: 2
Immediately after becoming airborne, Flight 5481's nose began to rapidly pitch up. By the time it reached an altitude of 90 feet (27 m)
Cause of the crash
The investigators determined the crash to have been the result of the combination of two separate issues. After take-off, the plane climbed steeply as a result of higher than calculated weight on the aircraft that generated an incorrect
The aircraft's most recent service involved adjusting the elevator control cable, and was performed two nights before the crash by
Although the pilots had totaled up the ostensible
Aftermath
The NTSB report included 21 safety recommendations.
As a result of the weight issues discovered, the FAA planned to investigate and potentially revise estimated weight values, which had not been done since 1936. Air Midwest used an average weight of 200 lb (90.7 kg) per passenger after the accident, but the NTSB suggests that airlines use actual weights instead of average. About 70% of small air carriers still use average.[10] Air Midwest publicly apologized for the incident after the family of one crash victim pressured the airline to do so.[8][11][12] Air Midwest ceased operations in 2008. A memorial for the victims is located outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Dramatization
The crash was featured in season five of the Canadian-made, internationally distributed documentary series Mayday, in an episode titled "Dead Weight".[10]
Images
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US Airways hangar at Charlotte Douglas International Airport as viewed from Terminal in 2009.
-
US Airways hangar at Charlotte Douglas International Airport viewed from Runway 18R.
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Detail view of crash location at northwest corner of US Airways hangar at Charlotte Douglas International Airport viewed from Runway 5.
-
Flight 5481 (in background), shortly after impact
Notes
- ^ All times in the NTSB's final report are given in Eastern Standard Time (UTC−05:00).[1]: 1
See also
- Ryan Air Services Flight 103, a crash of a Beechcraft 1900C in 1987 that was overloaded and a center of gravity too aft from specifications.
- JS Air Flight 201
- National Airlines Flight 102
- UTA Flight 141
- Fine Air Flight 101, a cargo flight where a weight imbalance was a major contributor.
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Transportation Safety Board.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Aircraft Accident Report: Loss of Pitch Control During Takeoff, Air Midwest Flight 5481, Raytheon (Beechcraft) 1900D, N233YV, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 8, 2003 (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. February 26, 2004. NTSB/AAR-04/01.
- ^ "FAA Registry (N233YV)". Federal Aviation Administration.
- Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
- ^ a b "AIR MIDWEST 5481 CREW AND PASSENGER NAME LIST AMPLIFICATION" (Press release). US Airways. Archived from the original on February 2, 2003.
- ^ "AIR MIDWEST FLIGHT 5481 CREW AND PARTIAL PASSENGER NAME LIST NOTIFICATION #4" (Press release). US Airways. Archived from the original on February 10, 2003.
- ^ "AIR MIDWEST FLIGHT 5481 CREW AND PASSENGER NAME LIST UPDATE NOTIFICATION #5" (Press release). US Airways. Archived from the original on February 10, 2003.
- ISBN 978-1-4214-2448-4.
- ^ a b "Companies Accept Responsibility and Publicly Apologize to the Families of the January 8, 2003 Air Midwest Flight 5481 Crash in Charlotte, North Carolina". prweb.com. Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ "Loss of Pitch Control Caused Fatal Airliner Crash in Charlotte, North Carolina Last Year". National Transportation Safety Board. February 26, 2004. NTSB SB-04-03. Archived from the original on March 20, 2021.
- ^ National Geographic Channel.
- ^ Hedlund, Paul J. and Ronald L. M. Goldman. "Another Level of Justice: The Public Apology." Andrews Litigation Reporter (at Baum Hedlund Law). April 25, 2006. Volume 24, Issue 5.
- ^ Hedlund, Baum (May 6, 2005). "Companies Accept Responsibility and Publicly Apologize to the Families of the January 8, 2003 Air Midwest Flight 5481 Crash in Charlotte, North Carolina". Baum Hedlund Law. Retrieved October 27, 2008.
External links
- STATEMENT BY US AIRWAYS PRESIDENT AND CEO DAVID SIEGEL ON AIR MIDWEST ACCIDENT (Archive) US Airways
- Incident Involving US Airways Express Flight 5481 Operated by Air Midwest, Inc. (Archive) Mesa Airlines
- Investigators check black boxes from N.C. plane crash[dead link]
- NTSB Animation: Air Midwest Flight 5481; Beechcraft 1900 Accident Investigation; Charlotte, NC on YouTube
- Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript and accident summary
- Pre-crash photo of N233YV (Archive)