Carson Air Flight 66
| Carson Air Flight 66 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) A Carson Air Fairchild Metro |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Structural failure after exceeding the load limits |
| place |
North Shore Mountains , British Columbia , Canada
|
| date | April 13, 2015 |
| Fatalities | 2 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II
|
| operator |
Carson Air
|
| Mark |
C-GSKC
|
| Departure airport |
Vancouver Airport , British Columbia , Canada
|
| 1. Stopover |
Prince George Airport , British Columbia , Canada
|
| 2. Stopover |
Dawson Creek Regional Airport , British Columbia , Canada
|
| Destination airport |
Fort St. John Airport , British Columbia , Canada
|
| Passengers | 0 |
| crew | 2 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On April 13, 2015, a Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II crashed into the North Shore Mountains on Carson Air Flight 66 (flight number: CA66 ), a cargo flight operated by the Canadian airline Carson Air , after it had previously broken apart in the air. The two pilots on board were killed. The accident investigation found that excessive alcohol consumption played a role in the crash.
plane
The affected machine was the freight version of a Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II with the model serial number TC-235 , which was built in 1977 and initially approved with the test number N5394M . On July 29, 1977 the machine was handed over to Southern Airways , where it was given the new identification N61Z and the fleet number 261 . Due to a company merger , the machine was registered with Republic Airlines from July 1, 1979 . In July 1980 Britt Airways bought the machine and put it into operation. On June 2, 1992, the metro was sold to Berry Aviation of Austin , Texas . It approved this in July 1993 with the new identifier N235BA . From July 25, 1996 to October 10, 2006, the aircraft was finally registered with Superior Aviation , before it was finally taken over by Carson Air on October 24, 2006 and the last aircraft registration was C-GSKC . The twin-engine regional transport aircraft was equipped with two turboprop engines of the type Honeywell TPE331-10UA equipped.
Crew and planned route
The crew consisted of the 34-year-old captain Robert Brandt and a 32-year-old first officer.
The scheduled flight was from Vancouver airport to Fort St. John , British Columbia perform scheduled stops should be on the Prince George Airport and on the Dawson Creek Airport take place.
the accident
On the morning of April 13, 2015, the first officer appeared at the airport at around 6:00 a.m. He seemed to be in good spirits and spent five minutes in the flight planning room before going to the aircraft to prepare it for the day's flights.
The captain arrived at the airport at around 6:15 a.m. He went straight to the flight planning room. The captain also seemed to be in a positive state of mind. He chatted for a few minutes with colleagues who were also preparing for their departures. Captain Brandt queried the weather data on a company computer and called NAV CANADA, with whom he discussed the flight plan according to IFR rules. None of the persons with whom Brandt had contact noticed any abnormal behavior on the part of the master. The captain then ran to the engine and spent 10 minutes in the cockpit. He then helped the first officer load the machine. Both crew members carried out final flight preparation measures before boarding the aircraft and starting the engines at around 6.45 a.m.
The take-off run began at around 7:03 a.m. The machine rotated after about 900 meters. Shortly thereafter, the pilots contacted Vancouver air traffic control and asked for clearance to climb to 9,000 feet (approx. 2,740 meters).
The machine rose at a speed of 1,500 feet per minute, its airspeed gradually increasing to 185 knots (about 343 km / h). At 7:08 a.m., the pilots confirmed clearance to climb to 20,000 feet (approx. 6100 meters). This was the last radio message sent by the machine. A minute and 20 seconds later, while the aircraft was at an altitude of 8,700 feet (approximately 2,650 meters), it began to descend rapidly at a rate of 33,000 feet per minute. It then disappeared from the air traffic control radar screens. Seven minutes after take-off, the machine hit the ground.
Search and recovery of the wreck
The machine crashed in a hilly area near Crown Mountain, which is part of the North Shore Mountains . Two helicopters and two aircraft from the North Shore Ambulance Station were involved in the search for the wrecked aircraft. The search was made difficult by bad weather. It was later found that the emergency location transmitter had been switched on but was not emitting a signal.
Causes of the crash
The accident was investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB). The investigation was made more difficult by the fact that there were no functioning flight data recorders on board.
It was found that the machine had broken apart in the air before the crash. The breakup was due to a rapid descent in which the material load limits of the machine were exceeded. Before the crash, the Metroliner had sunk at a speed of 33,000 feet (approx. 9150 meters) per minute, which corresponds to a nosedive.
While the physical causes for the breakup of the machine and the crash could be proven in the laboratory, the reasons for the machine being used in such an abnormal maneuver could not be clearly determined.
A toxicological examination revealed that the captain had a blood alcohol content of 2.4 per mille. In order to achieve such an alcohol level, the captain had to drink around 17 to 20 alcoholic drinks over a period of 12 hours. The autopsy also revealed severe arteriosclerosis of the coronary arteries and steatohepatitis of the liver. Such medical findings in a 34-year-old man's body suggest excessive alcohol consumption over a long period of time.
Before the accident, the captain had applied for a position as chief pilot for the company's freight operations in Vancouver. On March 26, 2015, the company informed him that the position had been given to another applicant. The accident on Germanwings flight 9525 occurred promptly on March 24, 2015, 20 days before the accident, on which the first officer flew an Airbus A320 against a rock face with suicidal intent . Although some coincidences were found, the investigators were unable to draw any conclusions as to whether the captain would have been able to intentionally cause a crash. A pilot suicide could therefore neither be confirmed nor ruled out. Other scenarios such as pitot tube icing or crew incapacity were considered but not found to be too likely.
In their investigation report, the investigators noted that the machine had crashed because, for unknown reasons, it went into a rapid descent on its flight path, during which the material loads on the airframe were exceeded. Based on the captain's blood alcohol levels, it could also be established almost with certainty that alcohol consumption played a role in the accident.
Similar events
Other incidents with proven use of psychoactive substances by one or more pilots:
- Aeroflot flight 821 (alcohol)
- Aero-O / Y flight 311 (alcohol)
- Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 8054 (alcohol)
- Trans Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 (Cocaine)
swell
- Accident report in the Aviation Safety Network
- Operating history of the machine on rzjets.net
- Robert Brandt, Carson Air pilot killed in BC plane crash, had alcohol in system , CBC / Radio-Canada , August 19, 2015.
Coordinates: 49 ° 24 '32.4 " N , 123 ° 5' 34.8" W.