Posted on 03/20/2025 12:36:50 PM PDT by BenLurkin
There was no final cause of the crash in the report released Thursday, but the investigation found that the right main landing gear broke and collapsed on impact as the plane landed at a high descent rate.
The first officer, who was in her fifth straight day of flying, was at the controls of the plane, according to the report. She had 1,422 hours of flying total, which is below the Federal Aviation Administration minimum to be a commercial pilot.
She was able to fly commercially with a special exception from the FAA because she had a specific aviation degree and received a waiver...
About 13 seconds before landing, the plane's airspeed increased to 154 knots, "consistent with a performance-increasing wind gust," according to the report. The first officer, who was flying the plane, pulled back the thrust levers to decrease engine thrust.
Then, 2.6 seconds before touchdown, the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System alert "sink rate" went off, indicating a high rate of descent...
Less than one second before touchdown, the aircraft's indicated airspeed was 134 knots and its groundspeed was 11 knots, per the report. The bank angle was 7.1 degrees to the right, and the pitch attitude was 1 degree nose up. The rate of descent was recorded as 1,110 feet per minute...
No obvious preexisting malfunctions were found on the components of the flight control...
Preliminary information from the flight data recorder did not have any "caution or warning messages" about the flight controls.
While the first officer had flown for five straight days, including the same day on a flight from Cleveland at 8:19 a.m., the captain had not flown for seven days. The captain has worked for Endeavor since October 2007. He has 3,570 hours total flight time and 765 hours on the CRJ-900.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
i am not a pilot, but should there not be a ground effect, where the plane hovers above the ground for a while, deriving lift from close proximity to the runway? after that, cut power until ground effect is overcome by gravity? if that does not work, then maybe trim flaps a tiny bit to assist gravity to descend?
Funny they wrote “1,100 fpm descent rate 1 second before touchdown” and don’t comment on it. I guess they are just reporting the facts and the analysis will come later.
She was able to fly commercially with a special exception from the FAA because she had a specific aviation degree and received a waiver...
But that's kind of an MSM lie by omission, because only 1,250 hours are required if one has a bachelor's degree in aviation from an FAA-approved school.
The issue here isn't her total hours of flying time but her hours in and familiarity with the aircraft type, especially in bad weather. One can be a competent pilot in a smaller aircraft and still have trouble handling a larger aircraft in crosswinds.
I know. But when I first saw the "1,110 fpm" number, I thought "that's suicide!" Then I did a little mental math, and realized it's less than 13 mph. Then I looked up the max sink rate for a carrier landing, and saw that it's not that far out of the ballpark.
I was thinking she had been a carrier pilot, perhaps. Probably not.
Anyway, it totaled the plane, so it could very easily have become "suicide." Just luck it wasn't.
I saw replays of the landing and I swear it looked like a carrier landing in search of the 2 wire.
The issue here isn’t her total hours of flying time but her hours in and familiarity with the aircraft type, especially in bad weather. One can be a competent pilot in a smaller aircraft and still have trouble handling a larger aircraft in crosswinds.
The captain should have either taken over or called for a go-around. I’m sure the NTSB will hold him responsible.
The captain should have either taken over or called
for a go-around. I’m sure the NTSB will hold him responsible.
My question as well.....why didnt the captain take over?
Could he have been told not to.....to give her credit?
The airline was probably flying the low time female pilot as much as they could to build her hours for rapid advancement to meet DEI goals.
Five days straight is no big deal on short hops but who knows how fatigued she was.
She was paired with a PIC Captain with unusual flight qualifications.
They were flying the airplane in very challenging conditions for any pilot.
This was definitely a day where you wanted the A Team flying the airplane.
On top of that, they seem to have hit a strong microburst on short final at very low altitude.
This makes for a very bad day for the pilots. The issue here was probably not so much pilot skill landing the plane as it was not realizing what was happening quickly enough and exercising poor judgment by not initiating a go around to avoid an anomalous weather event that may have created weather conditions that exceeded the operating limitations of the aircraft.
The issue here was not so much pilot skill landing the plane, as it was:
<><>not realizing what was happening quickly enough
<><>and exercising poor judgment to avoid a weather event.
Good points.......makes a lot of sense.
“Could he have been told not to.....to give her credit?”
It may have been a reverse of the usual reluctance for a first officer to countermand a Captain: he was afraid of being thought sexist in taking over control.
Sexism.......no doubt.
A DEI waiver?
” indicated airspeed was 134 knots and its groundspeed was 11 knots,”
123 kt wind????
Not exactly. You can be a commercial pilot with far less. (used to be 250 if I recall). You have to have 1500 (or thats the number it used to be) for ATP.
Not exactly. If you graduate from an approved aviation program, which she did, you can fly right seat with less than 1500 hours.
Who are you disagreeing with? The article or me? I simply stated what the commercial license and ATP requirements are.
Pilette error?
That or he figured, "It's now or never. She is supposedly qualified to do this, so let's find out now instead of promoting her upward into situations of more severe consequences."
You can scream until you're blue in the face that someone shouldn't put their hands on a hot stove. You'd be better off encouraging them (if an adult) to put both hands on it.
We're transitioning from decades of infantilization into FAFO and "Steer into the skid."
"You collect the paycheck - you're going to do the job."
"You're a boss babe; you don't need no man."
“ Uh oh...”Less than one second before touchdown...the rate of descent was 1,110 feet per minute” At one second before touchdown, the pilots should have flared the aircraft and descent rate should be 100–300 fpm for a smooth landing.
They came in kind of hot.”
She thought it was a carrier deck. She just didn’t catch the wire
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