CommutAir Flight 4821

CommutAir Flight 4821
	A Beechcraft 1900C similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date	January 3, 1992
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
Site	Gabriels, near Adirondack Regional Airport, Saranac Lake, New York, United States ; 44°25′16″N 74°11′28″W / 44.421°N 74.191°W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Beechcraft 1900C
Operator	CommutAir doing business as USAir Express
Registration	N55000
Flight origin	Plattsburgh International Airport, Plattsburgh, New York
1st stopover	Adirondack Regional Airport, Saranac Lake, New York
Last stopover	Albany International Airport, Albany, New York
Destination	Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark, New Jersey
Occupants	4
Passengers	2
Crew	2
Fatalities	2
Injuries	2
Survivors	2

On Friday, January 3, 1992, a Beechcraft 1900C operating CommutAir Flight 4821 crashed into a wooded hillside near Gabriels, New York while conducting an ILS approach to Runway 23 at the Adirondack Regional Airport. The cause of the accident was determined to be pilot error. There were two people killed in the crash, and two survivors.^[1]

Accident

Flight 4821 was a regularly scheduled early morning USAir Express flight from Plattsburgh, New York, to Newark, New Jersey, with intermediate stops in Saranac Lake and Albany, New York. The crew for Flight 4821 were Captain Kevin St. Germain, 30, and First Officer Dean Montana, 23. There were two passengers on board, one of which was an off-duty CommutAir employee.^[2]

Shortly before the crash occurred, the aircraft had contacted CommutAir officials on the ground at the airport. During the descent into Saranac Lake, the crew descended below the glide slope and crashed into a hill at 5:45am.^[3] First Officer Montana and the company employee passenger were killed. Captain St. Germain and the other passenger survived the crash with injuries.^[4]

Investigation

The aircraft was new and the crew was experienced. Immediately following the accident, there was no clear cause.^[5]

The aircraft was not required to be equipped with a flight data recorder (FDR), therefore, a flight data recorder was not present. The aircraft was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) but it was burned to the point that the data inside were not usable. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) used aircraft position data from air traffic control, the aircraft wreckage, survivor interviews, and weather information to find its probable cause.^[4]

The NTSB blamed the pilots for the crash. Captain St. Germain failed to stabilize the approach, cross check the instruments, and descended below the minimum altitude. First Officer Montana failed to monitor the approach. The contributing factors to the crash were weather and possible precipitation static interference, which could have caused unreliable glide slope indications.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Beechcraft 1900C-1 N55000 Saranac Lake-Adirondack Airport, NY (SLK)". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
^ "2 KILLED IN PLANE CRASH". The Palm Beach Post. January 4, 1992. - Clipping at Newspapers.com.
^ "2 die, 2 hurt in commuter plane crash". Chicago Tribune. January 4, 1992. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
^ ^a ^b "In reply refer to: A-94-74 through -76" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. March 28, 1994. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
^ "2 DIE IN BAFFLING CRASH OF NEW PLANE". The Buffalo News. January 5, 1992. Retrieved April 23, 2010. - Clipping at Newspapers.com.

[AvSafetyNetwork-1] Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Beechcraft 1900C-1 N55000 Saranac Lake-Adirondack Airport, NY (SLK)". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. Retrieved July 5, 2009.

[2] "2 KILLED IN PLANE CRASH". The Palm Beach Post. January 4, 1992. - Clipping at Newspapers.com.

[3] "2 die, 2 hurt in commuter plane crash". Chicago Tribune. January 4, 1992. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2010.

[NTSBInReply-4] "In reply refer to: A-94-74 through -76" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. March 28, 1994. Retrieved April 23, 2010.

[5] "2 DIE IN BAFFLING CRASH OF NEW PLANE". The Buffalo News. January 5, 1992. Retrieved April 23, 2010. - Clipping at Newspapers.com.

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v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1990s
1990	Northwest Airlines Flight 5 (January 4 1990) Avianca Flight 052 (January 25 1990) Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2254 (April 1990) Death of Stevie Ray Vaughan (August 190) Wayne County Airport runway collision (December 1990)
1991	Los Angeles Airport runway collision (February 1 1991) Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 (February 17 1991) United Airlines Flight 585 (March 1991) Merion air disaster (April 4 1991) Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 (April 5 1991) L'Express Airlines Flight 508 (July 1991) Continental Express Flight 2574 (September 1991) Vallejo helicopter crash (October 1991)
1992	CommutAir Flight 4821 (January 1992) Air Transport International Flight 805 (February 1992) USAir Flight 405 (March 1992) American Eagle Flight 5456 (June 7 1992)* GP Express Airlines Flight 861 (June 8 1992) TWA Flight 843 (July 1992)
1993	Lufthansa Flight 592 (February 1993) Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 46E (March 1993) Alan Kulwicki plane crash (April 1 1993) China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 (April 6 1993) American Airlines Flight 102 (April 14 1993) American International Airways Flight 808 (August 1993)* Northwest Airlink Flight 5719 (December 1993)
1994	United Express Flight 6291 (January 1994) Green Ramp disaster (March 1994) Federal Express Flight 705 (April 1994) Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash (June 1994) USAir Flight 1016 (July 1994) USAir Flight 427 (September 1994) American Eagle Flight 4184 (October 1994) TWA Flight 427 (November 1994) Flagship Airlines Flight 3379 (December 1994)
1995	Air Transport International Flight 782 (February 1995) Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529 (August 1995) Alaska Boeing E-3 Sentry accident (September 1995) American Airlines Flight 1572 (November 1995) Tower Air Flight 41 (December 1995)
1996	ValuJet Flight 592 (May 1996) Eastwind Airlines Flight 517 (June 1996) Delta Air Lines Flight 1288 (July 6 1996) TWA Flight 800 (July 17 1996) FedEx Express Flight 1406 (September 1996) Quincy Airport disaster (November 1996) Airborne Express Flight 827 (December 22 1996) New Hampshire Learjet crash (December 24 1996)
1997	Comair Flight 3272 (January 1997) FedEx Express Flight 14 (July 1997) Korean Air Flight 801 (August 6 1997)* Fine Air Flight 101 (August 7 1997) John Denver (October 1997)
1998	United Airlines Flight 863 (June 1998)
1999	American Airlines Flight 1420 (June 1999) Martha's Vineyard plane crash (July 1999) South Dakota Learjet crash (October 1999)
This list is incomplete. An asterisk (*) denotes an incident that took place either in a U.S. territory or at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.