Execuflight Flight 1526

Aviation accident

Execuflight Flight 1526 was an Execuflight airline charter flight from Dayton Airport, Ohio to Akron Fulton Airport on November 10, 2015, with a Hawker 800. On final approach to Akron, the pilots lost control of the aircraft. It crashed in a residential neighborhood and exploded. The nine occupants were killed in the crash. The aircraft and the house in which it had crashed burned completely.[1]

Execuflight Flight 1526
The crash site
Accident
Date10 November 2015 (2015-11-10)
SummaryLoss of control due to decreasing airspeed while final approach, crashed into building, lack of crew and pilot error
Site4 km northeast of Akron Fulton International Airport, United States
Aircraft
Aircraft typeHawker 700
OperatorExecuflight
Call signZIPLINE 1526
RegistrationN237WR
Flight originDayton Wright Brothers Airport, United States
DestinationAkron Fulton International Airport, United States
Occupants9
Passengers7
Crew2
Fatalities9
Survivors0

Crew change

 
The aircraft involved in the accident

The crew consisted of 40-year-old Colombian Captain Oscar Chávez and 50-year-old Italian First Officer Renato Marchese. There were no flight attendants on the flight. The captain had been with the airline since June 4, 2015. His cumulative flight experience was 6,170 hours, of which he had flown 3,414 hours as pilot in command. He had 1,020 hours of flight experience with the accident plane, of which 670 hours as pilot in command. The first officer was hired by Execuflight on June 1, 2015. He had 4,382 hours of flight experience, 3,200 of which he had served as pilot in command. His flight experience with accident-type aircraft totaled 482 hours, which he had completed in its entirety as a first officer.

Accident change

Flight 1526 took off from Dayton Wright Brothers Airport (MCY) headed for Akron-Canton Airport (CAK). The flight's cruising altitude was 17,000 feet (5,180 metres).

While descending to 13,000 feet (3,960 metres), the Captain checked the weather with the control tower. They reported winds at 290 degrees at 07 Celsius, visibility of 2km, and temperature at 09 Celsius, but with unpredictable weather.

As the crew descended at 9,000 feet (2,740 metres), the controller reported the visibility changed at 1.5 mist, weather condition 600 feet broken, and temperature 11 Celsius.

Six minutes from landing, the crew got a new distraction. A flight instructor was teaching another pilot how to land in bad weather on the same runway as Flight 1526. The controller held Flight 1526 on the approach and requested heading 360, reducing speed 170 knots, and maintaining 3,000 feet which they required to hold their course and delay their descent. After two minutes further delay on runway 25 localizer, Flight 1526 was cleared to land. The crew was notified that the piper had landed safely on the runway and the pilots were now ready to land. While approaching on the runway, the crew checked the final preparations onto the runway 25 localizer. Two miles from the runway, the pilots were still searching when the visibility got worse. They had to maintain a safe minimum descent altitude until the pilots could see the runway. The plane then broke through thick clouds, allowing the pilots to see the ground clearly. With the plane still approaching and still looking for the runway, they had descended very steeply. Below the minimum descent altitude, the First Officer tried to push the throttle up, then the stick shaker and aerodynamic stall warning sounded. Within moments the plane crashed into a 2-storey residential building.

Investigation change

Recordings and interviews with the colleagues of the pilots showed that the pilots were overly tired at the time of the accident. They had only slept about six hours a night on average during the previous nights.

They lowered the aircraft below the safe altitude of 473 feet. They could see the ground but still could not see the runway. As they searched for the runway, they failed to see that the airspeed had dropped to 98 knots, causing an aerodynamic stall.

In popular culture change

The accident is featured in the 2nd episode of Season 21 of Air Crash Investigation, also known as Mayday. The episode is titled "Playing Catch Up".

References change

  1. "Crash During Nonprecision Instrument Approach to Landing Execuflight Flight 1526 British Aerospace HS 125-700A, N237WR Akron, Ohio November 10, 2015" (PDF).

Other websites change