Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Kirksville Regional Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Kirksville, Missouri
Tuesady, October 19, 2004 19:37 CDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-06/01.
On October 19, 2004, about 1937 central daylight time, Corporate Airlines (doing business as American Connection) flight 5966, a BAE Systems BAE-J3201, N875JX, struck trees on final approach and crashed short of runway 36 at Kirksville Regional Airport (IRK), Kirksville, Missouri. The flight was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a scheduled passenger flight from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, in St. Louis, Missouri, to IRK. The captain, first officer, and 11 of the 13 passengers were fatally injured, and 2 passengers received serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed by impact and a postimpact fire. Night instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) prevailed at the time of the accident, and the flight operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
the pilots' failure to follow established procedures and properly conduct a nonprecision instrument approach at night in IMC, including their descent below the minimum descent altitude (MDA) before required visual cues were available (which continued unmoderated until the airplane struck the trees) and their failure to adhere to the established division of duties between the flying and nonflying (monitoring) pilot.
Contributing to the accident was the pilots' failure to make standard callouts and the current Federal Aviation Regulations that allow pilots to descend below the MDA into a region in which safe obstacle clearance is not assured based upon seeing only the airport approach lights. The pilots' unprofessional behavior during the flight and their fatigue likely contributed to their degraded performance.
.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 10/19/2004 |
| Event Day of the Week | Tuesday |
| Time of Event | 1937 |
| Event Time Zone | Central Daylight Time |
| Event City | Kirksville |
| Event State | MISSOURI |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | -- |
| Event Date Year | 2004 |
| Event Date Month | 10 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | KIRKSVILLE REGIONAL |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | IRK |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 2 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 180 |
| Airport Elevation | 945 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1735 Central Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 359 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | KIRK |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 966 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 2 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | CDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Night/Dark |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 300 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 300 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Thin Overcast |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Overcast |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 3 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 9 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 8 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 20 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 6 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.96 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Fatal |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | 13 |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 2 |
| Injury Total All | 15 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 19619 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Oct 19 2004 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jul 24 2009 1:16PM |
| User who most recently changed record | johb |
| Basic weather conditions | Instrument Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N875JX |
| NTSB Number | DCA05MA004 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Destroyed |
| Aircraft Fire | Ground |
| Aircraft Explosion | -- |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | British Aerospace |
| Aircraft Model | Jetstream 32 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 875 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 16204 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 19 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Oct 18 2004 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 9.4 |
| Airframe Hours | 21977.6 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Wells Fargo Bank |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 229 S. Main St. FL 12 MAC U 1228-120 |
| Aircraft Owner City | Salt Lake City |
| Aircraft Owner State | UT |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 84111 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | CORPORATE AIRLINES |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | 693 Fitzhugh Blvd. |
| Operator City | Smyrna |
| Operator State | TN |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 37167 |
| Operator Code | F1JR |
| Owner has at least one certificate | -- |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | KSTL |
| Departure City | St. Louis |
| Departure State | MO |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1842 |
| Departure Time Zone | CDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | KIRK |
| Destination City | Kirksville |
| Destination State | MO |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Approach |
| Report sent to ICAO? | Yes |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 28 2006 4:08PM |
| User who most recently changed record | DELI |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 36 |
| Runway Length | 6005 |
| Runway Width | 100 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |