“If the captain had conducted an approach briefing that included a committed-to-stop point — for example, in the case of the [Hawker], once lift dump has been deployed — he may not have decided to attempt a go-around late in the landing roll.”East Coast Jets’ general operations manual did not include, and was not required to include, SOPs.
Faced with an imminent overrun, a Hawker captain attempted a go-around.Establishing “committed-to-stop” points on landing for turbine airplanes and allowing pilots to use prescription sleep medications to counter insomnia were among the recommendations generated by the investigation of a Hawker 800A accident in Owatonna, Minnesota, U.S., that killed all eight people aboard and destroyed the airplane on July 31, 2008.In its final report, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that the probable cause of the accident was “the captain’s decision to attempt a go-around late in the landing roll with insufficient runway remaining.”Factors contributing to the accident were “the pilots’ poor crew coordination and lack of cockpit discipline; fatigue, which likely impaired both pilots’ performance; and the failure of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require crew resource management (CRM) training and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for [U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations] Part 135 operators.”The Hawker, operated by East Coast Jets, had been chartered by Revel Entertainment to transport six employees to Owatonna from Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was a flight instructor before being hired by East Coast Jets in January 2005.The first officer, 27, had about 1,454 flight hours, including 295 hours as a Hawker second-in-command and 2 hours as a Learjet SIC. Das Erstellen einer
The first officer said, “Doesn’t it figure [that weather] pops up right when we get here?”The flight was handed off to an approach control facility at 0932, and the crew was instructed to turn left to a heading of 250 degrees. At East Coast Jets, we have a singular mission - to provide safe, on-time and in-style transportation across the state or around the world. “However, the accident trip involved an early reporting time, and evidence indicates that both pilots got less than their typical amount of sleep the night before the accident,” the report said.Including habitual afternoon naps, the captain typically slept about 11 to 15 hours a day.
Training in SOPs was conducted according to the During flight operations, however, the pilots used company checklists that were revised versions of the SimCom checklists.
He then told the first officer, who had made several unsuccessful attempts to establish radio contact with the fixed base operator (FBO) at the airport, to try to contact the FBO again.“The captain, as PIC, should not have allowed the first officer to make nonessential calls to the FBO during such a high-workload period,” the report said, also noting that it was a violation of the “sterile cockpit rule” and caused the first officer to “fall behind on conducting his duties.”The captain told the approach controller that he had the airport in sight and canceled the instrument flight rules flight plan. The airplane was cleared for an approach to runway 30. At the leading edge of the severe weather was a squall line that had passed over the airport about an hour earlier, leaving behind an extensive area of scattered thunderstorms and light to moderate precipitation.A controller at Minneapolis Center asked the crew if they were aware of an area of extreme precipitation 20 nm (37 km) ahead — that is, to the west. Founded in 1999 and based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, East Coast Jets employed 22 full-time pilots and operated four Hawkers and six Learjets. After another hand-off a few minutes later, the crew was cleared to descend to 7,000 ft and was issued vectors for the instrument landing system (ILS) approach to Runway 30.At 0935, the captain called for the “Approach” checklist. The company had no previous accident history.The captain assigned to the flight was 40 years old and had about 3,600 flight hours, including 1,188 hours as a Hawker pilot-in-command and 874 hours as a Learjet PIC.