The tragic crash at Charleston’s Yeager Airport the morning of May 5th took a strange and revealing turn the moment airport officials began issuing public statements.
Charleston’s airport leadership making an uneducated assertion the Air Cargo Carriers aircraft crashed due to “coming in hot and sideways, hitting the runway hard” demonstrates a disturbing level of ignorance and unprofessional behavior.
The additional statement that Yeager Airport (KCRW) is “on par” with airports in New York and Chicago, and Yeager Airport (KCRW) “isn’t a difficult airport for pilots” reinforces the gross lack of understanding the complexity of airport operations.
These assertions also raises the question of the qualifications of the officials who made these statements.
R.G. McMillan
Charlotte, North Carolina
- Original article can be found here: http://www.wvgazettemail.com
National Transportation Safety Board
Short SD-330, N334AC, Air Cargo Carrier - ACC Integrated Services Inc: Fatal accident occurred May 05, 2017 at Yeager Airport (KCRW), Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia
The National Transportation Safety Board traveled to the scene of this accident.
Aviation Accident Preliminary Report - National Transportation Safety Board: https://app.ntsb.gov/pdf
Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Charleston
ACC Integrated Services Inc: http://registry.faa.gov/N334AC
NTSB Identification: DCA17FA109
Nonscheduled 14 CFR Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
Accident occurred Friday, May 05, 2017 in Charleston, WV
Aircraft: SHORT BROS. & HARLAND SD3 30, registration: N334AC
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 either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On May 5, 2017 at 6:51 a.m. eastern daylight time (EDT), Air Cargo Carriers flight 1260, a Shorts SD3-30, N334AC, crashed during landing on runway 5 at the Charleston Yeager International Airport (CRW), Charleston, West Virginia. The airplane was destroyed and the two pilots suffered fatal injuries. The flight was operating under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 135 as a cargo flight from Louisville International Airport (SDF), Louisville, Kentucky. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
In light of the video released today on YouTube, along with NTSB's video study, the airport official's statement about "hot and sideways" appears to be exactly what happened.
ReplyDeleteSee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_NmFCRFBoQ
Yes, there is a large approach offset at Yeager, but that's why the airport has a circling approach. No one is expected to - or expects to - fly straight in.