Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Jamaica, New York 11430
Monday, December 17, 2007 15:30 EDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
Prior to the incident flight, the Embraer EMB-145 was parked overnight with its tail pointed into the wind. During this time period, the winds were reported to be very high (on the order of 30-40 kts). The aircraft was equipped with a mechanical gust lock system designed to immobilize the forward torque tube of the elevator control system when the system is engaged. During takeoff, the flightcrew performed an emergency high-speed aborted takeoff because the captain felt a control anomaly during rotation. An inspection of the elevator control system components revealed that both left and right elevator control rods had fractured completely, rendering the elevator system inoperable. The elevator control rods fractured when the elevator surfaces repeatedly moved off the rear elevator stops due to wind gusts.
An airworthiness directive issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (AD 2005-26-15) was already in place at the time of this incident, which mandated replacement of the mechanical gust lock system on the Embraer 145 airplane with a more effective electromechanical gust lock system and required some repetitive inspections be performed until such time as the electromechanical system was installed. However, based on the findings in this incident, the FAA determined that the interim inspections mandated by AD 2005-26-15 were not adequate to detect the discrepancies exhibited in this event. As a result, the FAA subsequently issued a new airworthiness directive (AD 2008-03-03) to improve the interim inspections required until terminating action was taken by operators and also superceded AD 2005-26-15 with AD 2008-10-08 to shorten the compliance time for installation of the electromechanical gust lock system.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
the failure of the elevator control rods due to exposure to high winds while the aircraft was parked overnight.
Contributing to this incident was the failure of the existing airworthiness directive to adequately detect this discrepancy given the known deficiency with the mechanical gust lock design.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 12/17/2007 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 1530 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Daylight Time |
| Event City | Jamaica |
| Event State | NEW YORK |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 11430 |
| Event Date Year | 2007 |
| Event Date Month | 12 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 403823N |
| Event Location Longitude | 0734644E |
| Event Location Airport | John F. Kennedy International |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | JFK |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 1 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 13 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1551 Eastern Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | BUF |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 6000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 310 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 17 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 27 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30.01 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 53 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 26659 |
| NTSB Notification Source | Chautauqua Airlines |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 4 2011 12:54PM |
| User who most recently changed record | benr |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N272SK |
| NTSB Number | DCA08IA019 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Minor |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | EMBRAER |
| Aircraft Model | 145 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | LR |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 145306 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 48500 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | 2 |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | 50 |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | -- |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | No |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 299 South Main Street |
| 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 | Chautauqua Airlines |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | 8909 Purdue Road, Suite 300 |
| Operator City | Indianapolis |
| Operator State | IN |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | 46268 |
| Operator Code | CHQA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| 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 | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | JKF |
| Departure City | New York |
| Departure State | NY |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1530 |
| Departure Time Zone | EDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | BUF |
| Destination City | Buffalo |
| Destination State | NY |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Takeoff - aborted |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Apr 20 2010 10:09AM |
| User who most recently changed record | broda |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 31L |
| Runway Length | 14572 |
| Runway Width | 150 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |