Air accident near Jenkinsburg
| Air accident near Jenkinsburg | |
|---|---|
 A Cessna 208 Caravan machine configured for parachute jumps |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Engine failure due to contaminated fuel |
| place | near Jenkinsburg , Georgia , United States
|
| date | September 29, 1985 |
| Fatalities | 17th |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
Cessna 208 Caravan
|
| operator |
Air Carriers Express Services Inc.
|
| Mark |
N551CC
|
| Departure airport | West Wind Sports / Parachute Center, Jenkinsburg, Georgia , United States
|
| Destination airport | West Wind Sports / Parachute Center, Jenkinsburg, Georgia , United States
|
| Passengers | 16 |
| crew | 1 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The aircraft accident near Jenkinsburg occurred on September 29, 1985. On that day, a Cessna 208 Caravan fully occupied with parachutists crashed after take-off from Jenkinsburg airfield in the US state of Georgia due to an engine failure , killing all 17 occupants on board. It was the first known incident involving a fatal Cessna. As of May 2020, it is the accident of a Cessna 208 with the most fatalities.
plane
The machine is built was a 1985 Cessna 208 Caravan with the serial number 20800017 , which on 17 June 1985 with the aircraft marks N551CC to in Atlanta -based Air Carriers Express Sevices Inc. was approved. The single-engine commuter aircraft was equipped with a turboprop engine of the type Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-60A appointed, with a three-bladed, adjustable Hartzell was equipped -propeller. The Cessna was priced at $ 700,000 as new. The machine had a capacity for up to 18 parachutists. By the time of the accident, the Cessna had had a total operating performance of 350 hours.
Inmates
There were a pilot and 16 parachutists on board the machine.
the accident
The machine started in Jenkinsburg for a parachute jump. At an altitude of 300 feet, the engine dropped and the Cessna rolled sharply to the left, went into a spin with the nose of the aircraft pointing sharply down, and fell to the ground. All 17 occupants of the machine were killed.
After the crash
After the crash of the machine, passers-by rushed to the wreckage of the machine, but found all occupants dead. The bodies of the crash victims were stacked on top of each other and had to be cut out of the wreck by the fire brigade for recovery.
root cause
It turned out that the fuel in the tanks was heavily contaminated. It was mixed with water and there were foreign bodies in it that looked like brown algae . A milky substance was found in the fuel regulator, which in a laboratory test turned out to be a 65 percent mixture of aircraft fuel and 34 percent water, which also contained iron impurities. There was a dark, thread-like fabric inside the fuel filters. The plane had been refueled from 55-gallon barrels that contained contaminated fuel. The barrels were stored upright and rainwater could enter through the filler caps.
In the past, fuel contamination was repeatedly detected on the machine during operation. The control lamp for the fuel bypass lights up occasionally. Reportedly, the stall warning circuit breaker had been disabled on some flights to avoid frightening the parachutists. It was not possible to determine whether this was also the case on the flight involved in the accident, as the position of the circuit breaker could no longer be determined before the impact due to the high degree of destruction.
The machine's maximum take-off weight was exceeded by 168 kg and the weight distribution was bow-heavy. All the parachutists had their parachutes buckled.
Suspicion of sabotage
In the course of the investigation into the accident, the FBI also got involved , as the owner of the air sports club, who had died in the machine, was friends with a parachutist who had died shortly before when the release mechanism of his parachute failed. 79 pounds of cocaine were tied to the skydiver's harness. The machine was believed to have been sabotaged by drug smugglers in retaliation for the lost shipment by adding sugar to the tanks. The examination of the fuel system finally revealed no traces of sugar and the FBI cleared up the suspicion of sabotage a month and a half after the accident. The accident investigators concluded that, although large amounts of water were added to the fuel, they said that the water was most likely not added to the fuel on purpose.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Accident report Cessna 208, N551CC in the Aviation Safety Network
- ^ Special Investigation Report on the Safety of Parachute Jump Operations , National Transportation Safety Board , September 16, 2008, pp. 33–34.
- ↑ Operating history of the machine on rzjets.net
- ^ A b c Aircraft Accident / Incident Summary Reports , National Transportation Safety Board
- ↑ 17 KILLED IN GEORGIA WHEN PLANE FILLED WITH PARACHUTISTS CRASHES , New York Times, September 30, 1985
- ↑ 1985 - Sep 29, Skydiving Crash, Westwind Sports / Parachute Center, Jenkinsburg, GA-17
- ^ The FBI believes a plane that crashed and killed ... , UPI Archives , October 6, 1985.
- ↑ FBI Probe Into Plane Crash May Contradict NTSB Findings, Paper Says , Associated Press , Nov. 6, 1985.
- ^ Report Plane in Which 17 Died Was Sabotaged By Drug Smugglers , Associated Press , October 6, 1985.
- ↑ Farewells said to 16 Sky Divers , Chicago Tribune , October 8, 1985.