Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529
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| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | August 21, 1995 |
| Type | Mechanical failure |
| Site | Near Carrollton, Georgia, USA |
| Fatalities | 9 (8 officially) |
| Injuries | 20 (21 officially) |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia |
| Operator | Atlantic Southeast Airlines |
| Tail number | N256AS |
| Passengers | 26 |
| Crew | 3 |
| Survivors | 20 (21 officially) |
Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529, registration N256AS, was an Embraer Brasilia aircraft that crashed near Carrollton, Georgia on August 21, 1995 while on a flight from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Gulfport, Mississippi. Nine of the 29 passengers and crew on board eventually died due to injuries suffered in the accident.
Contents |
[edit] Aircraft
The aircraft had been delivered to Atlantic Southeast Airlines on March 3, 1989. Before the fatal flight it had flown 18,171 flights.
[edit] The accident
Flight 529 left the ramp area at Atlanta at 12:10, and took off at 12:23. At 12:43:25 and climbing through 18,100 feet, a thud was heard which the co-pilot described as sounding like a baseball bat striking an aluminum trash can. One of the blades of the propeller on the left engine had failed and the entire assembly had become dislodged, deforming the engine nacelle and distorting the wing's profile.
Although the EMB 120 is designed to fly with one engine simply malfunctioning, the distortion of the engine resulted in excessive drag and loss of lift on the left side of the aircraft, causing it to rapidly lose altitude.
The captain and co-pilot initially tried to return to Atlanta for an emergency landing, but the rapid descent resulted in them being diverted to West Georgia Regional Airport. Unfortunately, the airplane was unable to stay in the air that long and the pilots began searching for an open space to make a crash landing on the plane's belly. At 12:52:45 the airplane struck the tops of the trees and crashed into a field near Carrollton.
[edit] Casualties
In a fire which started about one minute after impact the captain, who had been knocked unconscious in the crash landing, was killed. Several passengers were seriously burned and seven died within 30 days of the crash, bringing the official death toll to eight. A ninth victim died four months after the crash from severe burn injuries.[1] None of the passengers or crew escaped uninjured, although eight had only minor injuries.
[edit] Probable cause
The probable cause of the accident was determined to be the failure of the propeller due to undiscovered metal fatigue resulting from corrosion. There had been at least two previous failures of the same propellers, but those aircraft had been able to land safely. The propellers had been recalled and serviced at a Hamilton Standard facility, but the inspection had been incomplete and the refurbishing work ineffective.
The NTSB criticized Hamilton Standard, who had maintained the props, for "inadequate and ineffective corporate inspection and repair techniques, training, documentation and communication", and both Hamilton and the FAA for "failure to require recurrent on-wing ultrasonic inspections for the affected propellers". The overcast skies and low cloud ceiling at the crash site also contributed to the severity of the crash.
[edit] Books and documentaries
- The disaster was featured on Air Crash Investigation in the episode Wounded Bird (also know in other places as A Wounded Bird and One Wing Flight).
- A book on the disaster, Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: The Tragedy & Triumph of ASA Flight 529 by Gary Pomerantz was written in 2001.
[edit] External links
- Aviation Safety Network Accident profile and CVR transcript
- NTSB report (PDF file)
- Article describing the crash and aftermath
