Corporate Airlines Loses 15 in J32 Crash

After losing its first plane in a high altitude incident, Pinnacle Airlines [PNCL] last week directed its pilots to fly its Bombardier [BBD] CRJ 200s no higher than 37,000 feet.

Pinnacle was one of two regional carriers to suffer fatal accidents within a six-day span, killing 15 individuals. Tennessee-based Corporate Airlines lost 11 passengers and two crew members in an Oct. 19 crash of a BAe Jetstream 32 twin-engine turboprop near Kirksville, Mo. The crash was also the first fatal accident for the privately held Corporate Airlines.

The Oct. 14 crash of Pinnacle flight 3701, carrying a crew of two, was the first U.S. fatal accident involving any Bombardier regional jet since the plane entered commercial service more than a decade ago. The crash of the Jetstream 32 marked the first fatal U.S. accident of that plane since May 2000.

Pinnacle was repositioning the 50-seat RJ from Little Rock, Ark., to Minneapolis when it crashed attempting an emergency landing in Jefferson City, Mo.

Corporate Airlines, J32, flying as American Connection Flight 5966, crashed at 7:50 p.m. (CDT) as it was making a landing approach at the Kirksville airport. The initial emergency response team found two survivors outside of the fuselage while eight bodies, including the two pilots, were still in the plane. Five of the 13 passengers on the 19-seat plane were initially listed as missing, but later found among the wreckage.

Pinnacle crash

A preliminary review of the voice recorder on the Pinnacle RJ revealed that the plane was flying at 41,000 feet when it lost power in both engines, said Terry Williams, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board. Williams and others confirmed that the 41,000-foot altitude is the maximum certified for the CRJ 200. The NTSB had not determined what altitude was prescribed in flight 3701's plan, he said. The crew, he said, was unsuccessful in repeated attempts to restart the engines.

The NTSB released a sequence of events based on a preliminary analysis of radio transmissions as well as the voice and data recorders, which were recovered. The timeline follows:

• 9:21 p.m. (CDT) - Plane departs Little Rock.
• 9:43 p.m. (CDT) - Crew informs Kansas City Air Route Traffic Center (ARTCO) that they were climbing to 41,000 feet.
• 9:52 p.m. (CDT) - Crew informs ARTCO that they reached 41,000 feet.
• 9:54 p.m. (CDT) - Crew asks ARTCO for a lower altitude.
• 9:54 p.m. (CDT) - Flight data recorder indicates both engines stopped almost simultaneously at 41,000 feet.
• 9:55 p.m. (CDT) - Crew declares an emergency.
• 9:59 p.m. (CDT) - Crew asks ARTCO for permission to fly at 13,000 feet.
• 10:03 p.m. (CDT) - Crew informs ARTCO that the plane experienced an engine failure at 41,000 feet.
• 10:08 p.m. (CDT) - Crew informs ARTCO that the plane experienced a double engine failure and they ask to be directed to the closest airport. Plane directed to land at Jefferson City, Mo.
• 10:13 p.m. (CDT) - Crew informs ARTCO the Jefferson City runway approach lights are within sight. The last radar contact with the plane occurs when it was about 900 feet above the ground.
• 10:15 p.m. (CDT) - Pinnacle flight 3701 crashes into a residential area about three miles south of the airport. No houses were struck and no one on the ground was injured.

Some early press accounts indicated the plane glided nearly 100 miles or 20 minutes after losing power. Williams could not confirm the distance of the powerless flight.

Deferring to the NTSB, Pinnacle spokesman Philip Reed could not say how often Pinnacle flew its planes at 41,000 feet.

All Bombardier regional jets fly with General Electric [GE] engines. The engines on the accident CRJ are both CF34-381s.

The 41,000 feet certification is a limitation imposed by the capabilities of the air frame, not the engines, said GE spokesman Rick Kennedy.

The plane, with registration N8396A, had flown 10,160 hours without any major problems, according to Pinnacle. The plane was delivered in May 2000 and was insured for $18.9 million with Aon.

During an examination of the wreckage, the NTSB said that there was some "thermal damage" to the right engine. The engines have been shipped to Lynn, Mass., for further examination.

The right engine was installed new on Oct. 23, 2003, and it had accumulated 2,303 hours and 1,971 cycles. The left engine had 8,856 hours and 8,480 cycles. It had been removed from another plane last October and installed on this plane in April.

On the morning of the accident, Williams said, a scheduled flight from Little Rock to Memphis was aborted when a cockpit warning light indicated that there was a problem with the bleed air system. The crew aborted the take-off and returned with the 21 passengers to the gate. Two Pinnacle mechanics from Memphis replaced a 14-stage bleed air sensing loop in the right engine and the plane was returned to service. The problem was considered solved and the plane was being flown to Minneapolis to reposition it for flights on Oct. 15.

Williams said there is no indication that the air bleed problem was related to the apparent engine failures in flight.

Since RJs have been introduced into commercial service there have been few fatal accidents. None of the accidents involve passengers. Counting the Pinnacle accident, the Bombardier family has had four major accidents with six fatalities. Its major competitor, the Embraer [ERJ] models 135/140/145, have had two serious "hull loss" accidents without a single fatality.

The next most recent fatal CRJ accident was June 22, 2003, near Brest, France. The pilot on Brit Air flight 5672 was killed as the plane overshot the runway. All 21 passengers and two of its crew members were able to escape the plane before it caught fire. The only other fatality was in July 1993 when three test pilots died in an evaluation flight at Wichita, Kan.

As of Aug. 31, Bombardier has delivered 880 CRJ 100/200s, said Bombardier spokesman Bert Cruickshank. The first plane entered commercial service in 1992.

According to an FAA database, Pinnacle has reported seven accidents or incidents involving CRJ 200s. None of the incidents involved an engine problem. Four of the seven incidents, including the most recent report last January, noted problems with trimming the aircraft's flaps.

Corporate Airlines accident

A preliminary report from the NTSB was not available at press time. Early reports indicated that the plane crashed four miles south of the airport. The last radio transmission indicated that the plane was on a normal approach and there was no mention of any problems. The sky was overcast with mist in the general area of the airport, but the early reports did not state what the weather was like at the airport. The flight originated in St. Louis, 220 miles to the southeast.

One of the survivors reportedly told rescue workers that the plane broke up prior to impact in a wooded area.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear. The Jetstream 32 was scheduled to have a more advanced ground-impact warning system installed.

Flight 5966 was one of 17 Jetstream 32s that Corporate Airlines flies.

Since 1987, there have been 19 major accidents of the Jetstream 32 with 97 fatalities. The next most recent fatal accident was in July 2000 when Aerocaribe flight 7831 crashed due to bad weather in a mountainous area of Villahermosa, Mexico. All 19 on board were killed. The last U.S. fatal accident was in May 2000 when an East Coast Aviation Services plane flying for Executive Airlines crashed on its second attempt to land at the Scranton, Pa., airport. It was determined the plane ran out of fuel. The only other U.S. fatality was in December 1994 when American Eagle flight 3379 crashed on final approach to the Raleigh, S.C., airport. That accident was attributed to pilot error.

>>Contact: Terry Williams, NTSB, (202) 314-6100; Philip Reed, Pinnacle, (901) 348-4257; Bert Cruickshank, Bombardier, (416) 375-3546; Rick Kennedy, GE, (513) 243- 3372.<<