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Date: | Monday 17 December 2007 |
Time: | 16:30 LT |
Type: | Embraer ERJ-145LR |
Owner/operator: | Chautauqua Airlines |
Registration: | N272SK |
MSN: | 145306 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 53 |
Other fatalities: | 0 |
Aircraft damage: | Minor |
Category: | Serious incident |
Location: | New York-John F. Kennedy International Airport, NY (JFK) -
United States of America
|
Phase: | Standing |
Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
Departure airport: | New York-John F. Kennedy International Airport, NY (JFK) |
Destination airport: | Buffalo Niagara International Airport, NY (BUF/KBUF) |
Investigating agency: | NTSB |
Confidence Rating: | Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
Narrative: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(AD 2008-03-03) to improve the interim inspections required until terminating action was taken by operators and also superceded AD 2005-26-15 with AD 2008-10-08 to shorten the compliance time for installation of the electromechanical gust lock system.
Probable Cause: 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.
Accident investigation:
|
| |
Investigating agency: | NTSB |
Report number: | DCA08IA019 |
Status: | Investigation completed |
Duration: | 3 years and 6 months |
Download report: | Final report |
|
Sources:
NTSB DCA08IA019
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
21 May 2021 |
TJ-KMM |
Camair-Co |
0 |
Yaoundé-Nsimalen International Airport (NSI/FKYS) |
|
non |
Runway excursion |
Location
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
25-Mar-2024 08:30 |
ASN Update Bot |
Added |
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