USAir Flight 427

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USAir Flight 427
Summary
Date   September 8, 1994
Type   Loss of control
Site   Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Fatalities   132
Injuries   0
Aircraft
Aircraft type   Boeing 737-300
Operator   USAir
Tail number   N513AU
Passengers   127
Crew   5
Survivors   0

US Airways Flight 427 was a commercial airline flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a final destination of West Palm Beach, Florida. The flight crashed on September 8, 1994, killing everyone on board.

On that day, the Boeing 737-3B7, registered N513AU, was approaching runway 28R in Pittsburgh's airport, which is located in Findlay Township, Pennsylvania. At about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) and 6 miles (10 km) from the runway, the aircraft experienced a sudden loss of control and slammed into the ground in a nearly vertical position in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, killing all 127 passengers (including a 2.5 year old baby named Narod Ardhaldjian who was sitting on her mother's lap and was initially unacounted for) and 5 crew members.

After its longest investigation in history—more than four and a half years—the concluding statement said:

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the USAir flight 427 accident was a loss of control of the airplane resulting from the movement of the rudder surface to its blowdown limit. The rudder surface most likely deflected in a direction opposite to that commanded by the pilots as a result of a jam of the main rudder power control unit servo valve secondary slide to the servo valve housing offset from its neutral position and overtravel of the primary slide. [1]

The NTSB concluded that similar rudder problems caused the previously mysterious March 3, 1991 crash of United Flight 585, and the June 9, 1996 incident involving Eastwind Airlines flight 517, both of which were Boeing 737s.

N527AU Boeing 737-300, a sister aircraft of N513AU the Flight 427 aircraft
Enlarge
N527AU Boeing 737-300, a sister aircraft of N513AU the Flight 427 aircraft
Cockpit of a boeing 737 clearly showing the rudder pedals and other primary controls and instruments
Enlarge
Cockpit of a boeing 737 clearly showing the rudder pedals and other primary controls and instruments

Other changes resulting from the investigation were:

  • to warn and train pilots of insufficient aileron authority at an airspeed at or less than 190 knots (218 mph, 354 km/h), formerly the usual approach speed for a B737.
  • to mandate four additional channels of information in flight data recorders, pilot rudder pedal commands
  • Boeing redesigned the rudder system on 737s and retrofitted existing craft until the affected systems can be replaced
  • Congress requires airlines to do a better job dealing with families of crash victims

427 is no longer a valid flight number for any flight on US Airways' timetable.

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