Northwest Airlink Flight 3724

Northwest Airlink Flight 3724
	A similar Fairchild SA-227AC Metro III operated by Northwest Airlink
Accident summary
Accident type	Propeller incident with personal injury
place	Newark International Airport , United States
date	5th November 1993
Survivors	15th
Fatalities on the ground	1
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Fairchild SA-227C Metro III
operator	Northeast Express Regional Airlines on behalf of Northwest Airlink
Mark	N550TD
Departure airport	Newark International Airport , Newark , New Jersey , United States;
Destination airport	Logan International Airport , Boston , Massachusetts , United States;
Passengers	13
crew	2
	Lists of aviation accidents

The Northwest Airlink Flight 3724 was a scheduled regional airline of the airline Northwest Airlink from Newark International Airport in Newark , New Jersey , to Logan International Airport in Boston , Massachusetts . On November 5, 1993, an incident occurred on this flight when a member of the ground crew at Newark Airport ran into the running propeller of a Fairchild SA-227C Metro III (N550TD) and was killed.

plane

The affected machine was a Fairchild SA-227C Metro III. The machine was finally assembled in 1988 and had the factory number AC-487B. It was the 487th machine of this type from ongoing production. The aircraft with the aircraft registration N550TD was delivered to the first operator Midcontinent Airlines in November 1988 and to Chrysler Asset Management Corp. on December 27th of the same year . registered in Stamford , Connecticut . In October 1989 the machine was returned to Fairchild . The company then leased the aircraft to Northcoast Executive Airlines from July 1990 to February 1991 . Since June 18, 1991, the machine was leased to the regional airline Northeast Express Regional Airlines , which carried out regional flights under the brand name Northwest Airlink on behalf of Northwest Airlines . The twin-engine regional transport aircraft was equipped with two turboprop engines of the type Honeywell TPE331-6-251M equipped.

Crew and passengers

There was a two-person crew on board, consisting of the pilot and the first officer. For the flight to Boston 13 passengers were seated in the plane. No flight attendants were provided on the regional flight.

the accident

The machine was located at Newark Airport in area of Terminal B, Satellite B4 at Gate 40 and was being processed for the flight to Boston. The N550TD was one of three machines that had been at the gate at the time. The flight was already 40 minutes late. Many planes left Newark Airport that day with delays due to the weather. A 22-year-old employee of Precision Airlines , a subsidiary of the Northeast Air Group , which operated the aircraft in question, was at the machine. The woman was entrusted with instructing the machines and handling the boarding and was initially alone at the gate. Later a colleague came to her aid.

The machine was still connected to the ground power unit (GPU) when the woman in front of the machine, standing in the field of vision of the pilots, first gave a hand signal to start the right engine and then to start the left engine. The captain then gave the signal to disconnect the machine from the GPU. This was on the right behind the aircraft. The captain later said that after giving the signal, he looked at his on-board instruments to see if the display for the GPU went off. The first officer's eyes were on the starting checklist.

Another member of the boarding staff who had just processed another machine came to help the woman. He said that after receiving the signal to disconnect the GPU, she walked to the rear of the aircraft on the outside of the right wing. After disconnecting the connector from the GPU connection, the woman ran with the cable to the rear of the machine. She gave the cable to the male employee, who then stowed it in the GPU car. The woman ran back towards the cockpit of the machine to brief the pilots on departure. When her colleague looked up while the cables were being stowed away, he saw that, contrary to the regulations, his colleague was not walking around the wing but towards it. The man yelled the woman's name several times to stop her, which she did not notice due to her hearing protection and the background noise.

Once at the wing, the woman bent down to pass under it. It ran into the propeller and was caught by the propeller blades, which turned at a speed of 1113 revolutions per minute.

consequences

The woman was killed instantly in the incident. The forensic examination revealed "multiple injuries". The result of a toxicological examination of the woman's body for the influence of alcohol and drugs was negative.

For the accident investigators of the investigating Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , the actions of the woman that had led to the accident were difficult to understand. Newark Airport manager Vincent Bonaventura said he was unaware of any other incident of this type in the airport's entire operating history. The accident report finally stated that the woman had deviated from the usual procedures for walking around the wings of the aircraft in order to accelerate the departure of the aircraft. The woman had been employed in this role since June 1, 1992 and had undergone five-day training after the appointment.

None of the occupants of the machine suffered physical injuries in the incident. The machine remained undamaged and, after several changes of ownership, has been in operation at the Mexican Aeronaves TSM since May 14, 2014 (as of April 2019).

swell

Operating history of the machine
BFO94LA002 - accident report of the National Transportation Safety Board
Airline Worker Preparing Plane Is Killed Walking Into Propeller , New York Times, November 6, 1993.
Sayreville Woman is killed by plane , The South Ambey Sayreville Times, November 13, 1993.