Event Details


Title:Crashed short, Southern Airways, Inc., Douglas DC-9-5, N92S, Gulfport, Mississippi, February 17, 1971
Micro summary:This DC-9 crashed on short final to runway 13 at Gulfport.
Event Time:1971-02-17 at 0809 CST
File Name:1971-02-17-US.pdf
Publishing Agency:National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
Publishing Country:USA
Report number:NTSB-AAR-71-14
Pages:23
Site of event:Short final, to Gulfport RWY 31
Departure:New Orleans International Airport (Moisant Field), Kenner, Louisiana, USA
Destination:Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, Gulfport, Mississipi, USA
Airplane Type(s):Douglas DC-9-5
Flight Phase:Landing
Registration(s):N92S
Operator(s):Southern Airways
Type of flight:Revenue
Occupants:11
Fatalities:0
Serious Injuries:1
Minor/Non-Injured:10
Other Injuries:0
Executive Summary:On February 17, 1971, at approximately 0809, Southern Airways, Inc., Flight 41, a scheduled air carrier passenger and cargo flight, struck an electric transmission line static cable during a VOR/DME approach to Runway 13 at the Gulfport, Mississippi, Municipal Airport. A successful go-around was accomplished and the aircrat was landed at Gulfport without further incident. There were seven passengers (five revenue, two nonrevenue) and a crew of four aboard. One passenger received a scratched hand from flying glass. The aircraft received substantial damage to the left main landing gear, left wing leading edge, and left fuselage. The left engine sustained foreign object ingestion damage. There was no fire.

A special weather observation made at the Gulfport Municipal Airport at 0805 showed a partial obscuration with visibility three-quarters of a mile in fog. The wind was from 040° at 6 knots.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was inadequate monitoring of the approach. The captain was preoccupied with the prelanding checklist during the final approach and the first officer, who was flying the aircraft. was devoting his attention to an attempt to establish visual contact with the runway in low visibility. These activities resulted in an improperly executed VOR/DME approach during which the aircraft descended below the minimum descent altitude before the crew acquired visual contact with the runway environment.

As a result of this investigation, the Board recommends that the Federal Aviation Administration:

1. Develop a ground proximity warning system for use in the approach and landing pluses of operation which will warn flightcrews of excessive fates of descent. unwanted/ivertent descent below Minimum Descent Altitudes, or descent through Decision Height. It would be desirable if the equipment now installed could meet this need: and

2. Develop and implement appropriate operational procedures to provide this type of warning to flightcrcws for use during the approach and landing phase of flight.

The Board also recommends that the FAA:

3. Complete the necessary action to commission the ILS equipment at Gulport since it has been installed for approximately 1 year.

During the investigation, the Board recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration take steps to preclude issuance of approach charts prior to commissioning of the pertinent navigational equipment. The FAA replied that they were examining several ways to improve the correlation of the procedural effective date with the facility commissioning date. (See Attachment 3.)
Learning Keywords:Operations - Airspace - Non-Precision Approach
Operations - Crew Resource Management
Operations - In-flight Collision with Ground Structure
Operations - Task Saturation
Consequence - Hull Loss

 




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