An aft-of-limits centre of gravity was added to the expected findings at the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing last week on the 8 January 2003 Air Midwest Raytheon Beechcraft 1900D crash at Charlotte Douglas airport, North Carolina. The NTSB says the probable cause was "loss of pitch control during take-off...resulting from the incorrect rigging of the elevator control system and the aircraft's aft centre of gravity". The agency said contributory factors included lack of oversight of the maintenance station by Air Midwest and the Federal Aviation Administration; the Raytheon Aerospace inspector's failure to detect the incorrect rigging; the airline's weight and balance programme; and the FAA's weight assumptions (average passenger/bags unit weight) at that time.
Source: Flight International
