Mohawk Airlines Flight 405
| Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) An identical Fairchild-Hiller FH-227B from Mohawk Airlines |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Loss of control after propeller failure |
| place |
Melrose , Albany , New York United States
|
| date | March 3, 1972 |
| Fatalities | 16 |
| Survivors | 32 |
| Injured | 31 |
| Fatalities on the ground | 1 |
| Injured on the ground | 4th |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Fairchild-Hiller FH-227B |
| operator |
Mohawk Airlines
|
| Mark | N7818M |
| Surname | City of Keene |
| Departure airport |
LaGuardia Airport , New York City , New York United States
|
| Destination airport |
Albany Airport , New York United States
|
| Passengers | 45 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 (Flight number: MO405 ) was a domestic airliner airline Mohawk Airlines from New York City to Albany . On March 3, 1972, a Fairchild-Hiller FH-227B had an accident on this flight , killing 17 people.
machine
The aircraft concerned was a Fairchild-Hiller FH-227B built in 1967 with the serial number 541. The machine from the American manufacturer Fairchild-Hiller was one of a license manufacturing contract with Fokker to manufacture the Fokker F-27 in the form of the identically constructed Fairchild F-27 further developed variant. The FH-227 had an elongated fuselage compared to the Fokker / Fairchild F-27. The twin-engine, short - haul aircraft was equipped with 2 Rolls-Royce Dart 532-7 turboprop engines .
The aircraft destroyed in the accident had the aircraft registration number N7818M and the name City of Keene . Mohawk Airlines received the aircraft brand new on May 2, 1967. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed 10,068 operating hours, which accounted for 15,714 take-offs and landings.
crew
There was a three-person crew on board, consisting of a flight captain, a first officer and a flight attendant:
- The 44-year-old flight captain Robert McAdam flew for Mohawk Airlines since August 1961. McAdam held type ratings for the Convair CV-240 , Convair CV-340 , Convair CV-440 , Fairchild F-27, and Fairchild-Hiller FH-227 . He was promoted to the rank of flight captain on May 13, 1965, as a flight captain of the types F-27 and FH-227 he was approved on February 1, 1967. McAdam had 12,248 hours of flight experience, of which he had completed 2202 hours in the cockpit of the F-27 and FH-227 types.
- 38-year-old First Officer William E. Matthews was hired by Mohawk Airlines in July 1968. He also held a Type Rating for the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter . Of his 9,969 hours of flight experience, Matthews had 2723 hours in Fairchild F-27s.
- The 24-year-old flight attendant Sandra I. Segar worked for Mohawk Airlines since January 1969. She was trained as a flight attendant for Convair CV-440 , Fairchild-Hiller FH-227 and BAC 1-11 machines .
Passengers and flight schedule
The regional flight MO405 within the state of New York from the domestic airport LaGuardia Airport to Albany Airport had taken 45 passengers.
Course of the flight and course of the accident
The flight went smoothly up to the approach to Albany. The crew received clearance to land on runway 01. When the aircraft was on the instrument approach at a distance of 8.5 nautical miles south of Albany Airport, the crew reported a problem with the pitch of the variable pitch propeller of engine number 1 ( Left). The propeller could not be brought into the sail position, so that the thrust on this engine could not be reduced, which would have been necessary for a landing. At a distance of 5 nautical miles from the airport, the pilots declare that they would bring the propeller into the sail position as part of an emergency procedure. They then stated that the machine would touch down before the runway threshold. As the machine continued to sink, the pilots continued to struggle with the propeller adjustment. Shortly afterwards, they lost control of the machine, which crashed into a residential building 3.5 nautical miles from the airport in the Melrose district of Albany . In the accident, 16 people on board the machine - including the two pilots - and one person in the house were killed. Another 31 occupants of the machine and four people in the house were injured.
Accident investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) initiated a full investigation into the accident following the incident, which included a three-day public hearing in Albany from April 25-27, 1972. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered from the rubble and their recorded data was found to be intact and usable. The investigation revealed that when attempting to reduce the thrust of the left engine during the final approach, the flight crew was unable to release the mechanism for maintaining the cruise thrust setting. When they then tried to turn off this engine and bring the propeller into the sail position, they were able to turn off the engine, but not bring the propeller into the sail position. This eventually led to the left propeller creating high and asymmetrical drag. The loss of control and a crash followed. Despite a considerable amount of investigative work, the NTSB was ultimately unable to clarify what had led to the propeller malfunction.
The cause of the accident was ultimately determined to be the inability of the cockpit crew to bring the left propeller into the sail position, in combination with a descent below the prescribed minimum flight altitude.
swell
- Final report of the National Transportation Safety Board , published April 11, 1973rd
- Accident report FH-227 N7818M , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 31, 2020.
- Operating history of the machine on rzjets.net
Coordinates: 42 ° 40 ′ 28 ″ N , 73 ° 48 ′ 1 ″ W.