Northwest Airlink Flight 5719

Northwest Airlink Flight 5719
A Northwest Airlink Jetstream 31 , similar to the aircraft involved in the accident
Accident summary
Accident type	Controlled flight into terrain through poor crew resource management
place	east of Hibbing , Minnesota , United States
date	1st December 1993
Fatalities	18th
Survivors	0
Injured	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Jetstream 31
operator	Express Airlines II on behalf of Northwest Airlink
Mark	N334PX
Departure airport	Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport , United States
Stopover	Chisholm-Hibbing Airport , United States
Destination airport	International Falls Airport , United States
Passengers	16
crew	2
Lists of aviation accidents

Northwest Airlink Flight 5719 (flight number: 9E5719 ) was a scheduled flight from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to International Falls Airport in International Falls , Minnesota with a scheduled stop at Chisholm-Hibbing Airport in Hibbing , Minnesota. On December 1, 1993, the flight was operated with a Jetstream 31 , which was operated by Express Airlines II on behalf of Northwest Airlink . On the approach to landing on Hibbing, the machine grazed treetops and fell, killing all 18 people on board.

plane

The machine was a Jetstream 31, which had been built in May 1986 at the British Aerospace plant in Prestwick , Scotland and had the serial number 706. The aircraft received its certificate of airworthiness on August 14, 1986 and passed to the Meridian Trust Company with the aircraft registration N334PX. This leased the machine to Express I and later to the successor company Express II Airlines. The flights of the machine were initially carried out under the brand name Republic Express , after the merger of the client with Northwest Airlines under the name Northwest Airlink.

Passengers and crew

On the day of the accident, 16 passengers were seated in the aircraft on departure. There were two pilots in the cockpit, the 42-year-old captain Marvin Falitz and the 25-year-old officer Chad Erickson. Erickson had 65 hours of flight experience on this type of aircraft. At the time of the accident, the machine was being flown by Captain Falitz. Falitz had failed the skills test in 1988, 1992 and early 1993, but passed it in November 1993.

Flight history

As the plane was delayed on arrival and the landing lights had to be replaced beforehand, Flight 5719 took off from Minneapolis more than 40 minutes late. Another delay occurred when it was discovered that the aircraft was too heavy to take off. A passenger then had to get off.

Flight 5719 passed without any special incidents until shortly before the accident. The machine had received clearance for an ILS-supported landing on runway 31. Since this runway had not been cleared and they should have landed with a tailwind, the pilots asked to fly to runway 13 instead. In this landing direction only one ILS reverse course approach procedure was available, which was a non-precision approach procedure due to the lack of vertical guidance .

the accident

Jetstream 31 cockpit

Captain Falitz initiated the approach late from an altitude of 8,000 feet and opted for a steep rate of descent to prevent the wings from icing up. The machine was not equipped with a ground proximity warning system; this was not mandatory for small machines at the time of the accident. The steep descent at a rate of 2250 feet (approximately 685 meters) per minute was maintained. The runway lights had to be switched on from the aircraft, as it would have been too costly for the small airport to operate continuously. When the captain instructed the co-pilot to turn on the lights in front of the runway, the runway could not be seen. In fact, the first officer only pressed the button briefly, which was insufficient for the receiver to recognize the signal. At an altitude of 2040 feet (approx. 620 meters), the machine suddenly struck a treetop and collided with several trembling aspen trees 200 meters further . The machine then overturned and lay upside down on the right side. All 18 people on board died in the accident.

Cause of accident

Initially, icing was assumed to be the cause of the accident; however, this was soon refuted by the NTSB. The cause of the accident was found to be the pilots' lack of awareness of their actual flight altitude, which had led to a descent below the minimum flight altitude.

Captain Falitz was known for following company procedures and working through checklists meticulously, but three first officers of the airline said that he was extremely dominant in the cockpit on flights. If he was frustrated, he would have deliberately flown dangerous maneuvers at times to scare passengers and "punish" the company. One examining captain testified that Falitz was an aggressive choleric and regularly attracted attention for his intimidating and provocative behavior in dealing with colleagues. In a fit of anger, he once hit a colleague against the headset.

In its final report, the NTSB finally saw the captain's poor social behavior as an important factor in the accident. This led to a collapse in crew resource management . The rather introverted First Officer Erickson was frightened by the harsh behavior of his colleague. After Falitz had reprimanded him several times in a derogatory and incomprehensible manner, Erickson did not want to make any further mistakes and probably did not draw the captain's attention to the altitude of the machine for this reason. The NTSB also shared responsibility for the airline, which, although the captain's problematic behavior was well known, had not taken any measures to sanction it.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 18 perish in crash of plane . In: The Spokesman Review , December 2, 1993. Retrieved March 6, 2019. 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} accident report Jetstream 31, N334PX NTSB (English), accessed on March 6, 2019.
3. ↑ Don Terry: Hunt for Clues In Plane Crash That Killed 18 . In: The New York Times (English) , December 3, 1993.  Accessed on March 6 of 2019.
4. ↑ Pilot in Fatal Crash Was Abusive, Failed Tests, Probe Reports Say . In: Washington Post (English) , February 6, 1994. Accessed March 6, 2019. 
5. ↑ ^{a b c} accident report Jetstream 31, N334PX Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 6, 2019.

Coordinates: 47 ° 25 ′ 21 ″  N , 92 ° 53 ′ 59 ″  W.