Accident · 2004-10-19

What the record says

Event date

2004-10-19

Event type

Accident

Highest injury level

Fatal injury

Aircraft

British Aerospace Jetstream 32 (N875JX)

Operating rule

Part 121

Operator

CORPORATE AIRLINES Operator named in NTSB report

Operated by (per NTSB report)

CORPORATE AIRLINES

Probable cause

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. .

Flight crew

Flight-crew details for this event aren't in the NTSB database extract we hold (its coverage starts with 2008 events) — a gap in our data, not an absence of crew.