Sunday, August 18, 2013

UPS Airbus A300-600, N155UP, Freight Flight 5X-1354: Accident occurred August 14, 2013 in Birmingham, Alabama

NTSB Identification: DCA13MA133 

Nonscheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of UNITED PARCEL SERVICE CO (D.B.A. operation of UNITED PARCEL SERVICE CO)
Accident occurred Wednesday, August 14, 2013 in Birmingham, AL
Probable Cause Approval Date: 02/03/2015
Aircraft: AIRBUS A300 - F4 622R, registration: N155UP
Injuries: 2 Fatal.

NTSB investigators traveled in support of this investigation and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

The Safety Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/aviation.aspx. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-14/02. 

On August 14, 2013, about 0447 central daylight time (CDT), United Parcel Service (UPS) flight 1354, an Airbus A300-600, N155UP, crashed short of runway 18 during a localizer nonprecision approach to runway 18 at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, Alabama. The captain and first officer were fatally injured, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces and postcrash fire. The nonscheduled cargo flight was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121 on an instrument flight rules flight plan, and dark night visual flight rules conditions prevailed at the airport; variable instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) with a variable ceiling were present north of the airport on the approach course at the time of the accident. The flight originated from Louisville International Airport-Standiford Field (SDF), Louisville, Kentucky, about 0503 eastern daylight time (EDT).

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
the flight crew's continuation of an unstabilized approach and their failure to monitor the aircraft's altitude during the approach, which led to an inadvertent descent below the minimum approach altitude and subsequently into terrain. Contributing to the accident were (1) the flight crew's failure to properly configure and verify the flight management computer for the profile approach; (2) the captain's failure to communicate his intentions to the first officer once it became apparent the vertical profile was not captured; (3) the flight crew's expectation that they would break out of the clouds at 1,000 feet above ground level due to incomplete weather information; (4) the first officer's failure to make the required minimums callouts; (5) the captain's performance deficiencies likely due to factors including, but not limited to, fatigue, distraction, or confusion, consistent with performance deficiencies exhibited during training; and (6) the first officer's fatigue due to acute sleep loss resulting from her ineffective off-duty time management and circadian factors.


NTSB Identification: DCA13MA133
Nonscheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of UNITED PARCEL SERVICE CO
Accident occurred Wednesday, August 14, 2013 in Birmingham, AL
Aircraft: AIRBUS A300 F4-622R, registration: N155UP
Injuries: 2 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators traveled in support of this investigation and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.

On August, 14, 2013, at about 0447 central daylight time (CDT), United Parcel Service flight 1354, an Airbus A300-600, N155UP, crashed short of runway 18 while on approach to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (KBHM), Birmingham, Alabama. The two flight crew members were fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed. The cargo flight was operating under 14 Code of Federal Regulation Part 121 supplemental and originated from Louisville International Airport, Louisville, Kentucky.


 UPS Airbus A300-600, N155UP,  Freight Flight 5X-1354:  Accident occurred August 14, 2013 in Birmingham, Alabama 


Federal investigators on Saturday indicated they are increasingly looking into pilot training and landing procedures, rather than any airplane malfunctions, to unravel Wednesday's crash of a United Parcel Service Inc. cargo jet while it was trying to land at the Birmingham, Ala., airport.

In the last on-site press briefing from the accident scene, the National Transportation Safety Board gave its strongest signal yet that experts haven't discovered any problems with the Airbus A300's engines, automated flight-controls or other onboard systems. In coming weeks, investigators will conduct a flight test "to learn more about" UPS pilot procedures during such a landing approach, board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters Saturday.

Stressing that "this is just the very beginning of the investigation" and no conclusions have been reached yet about the probable cause, Mr. Sumwalt nevertheless provided new details that the focus of the probe is on why the pilots failed to realize they were descending too quickly in the predawn darkness. The twin-engine jet hit some power lines and trees, before slamming into a hill and breaking apart in a field less than a mile short of the strip.

With the plane's engines and flight-control system seemingly operating normally, according to Mr. Sumwalt, the cockpit crew kept the autopilot and automated thrust-control system, called autothrust, engaged through the final phase of the approach. At one point in the briefing, however, Mr. Sumwalt suggested the autopilot may have been disconnected several seconds prior to impact but he didn't elaborate.

Mr. Sumwalt also said investigators have made a preliminary determination that the plane's speed, as well as the position of movable surfaces on the wings and tail, was consistent with a normal landing approach. But the jet's trajectory was off, its altitude was too low at the very end of the descent and an onboard warning sounded twice.

Investigators previously said that about seven seconds prior to initial impact, the pilots received the first automated alert from an onboard collision-avoidance system, warning them that the plane was sinking dangerously quickly. It isn't clear whether the autopilot was turned off before the second warning.

In mentioning the upcoming flight test, Mr. Sumwalt said the emphasis will be to understand how UPS safety officials "recommend or train" pilots to fly the type of nonprecision approach used in Birmingham the day of the accident. The plane was approaching a strip that lacks a full-blown instrument-landing system, because a longer strip that is equipped with such advanced navigation aids was temporarily closed for maintenance.

Mr. Sumwalt said pilots frequently keep autopilots and autothrottles engaged throughout landing approaches. But in the Birmingham accident, he added, investigators want "to understand what the crew was doing and what they knew" during the final few seconds of the flight.

The NTSB previously said the cockpit-voice recorder revealed that one of the pilots said the runway was "in sight" barely four seconds before the first sounds of impact.

The UPS freighter was following what is referred to as a nonprecision approach because the runway it was using wasn't equipped with a so-called glide-slope indicator. Such ground equipment, commonly used at most commercial airports, helps provide pilots with a detailed visual image of an aircraft's trajectory, particularly its descent rate and altitude in relation to potentially hazardous obstacles.

Since early July, three jetliners have been involved in high-profile accidents in the U.S at the end of visual or nonprecision approaches to runways. In response to a question about potential similarities between those crashes, Mr. Sumwalt said that after collecting the facts of the Birmingham crash, NTSB experts will "look to see if there are wider systems issues that need to be addressed."

Source:   http://online.wsj.com