DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
A Colgan Air Raytheon Beech 1900D crew operating a US Airways Express positioning flight on 26 August became the second on the type this year to lose control in the climb immediately after take-off.
Both pilots were killed when the turboprop (N240CJ) plunged into Nantucket Sound, USA, following take-off from Hyannis-Barnstaple airport.
In this event, and in the case of an Air Midwest 1900D accident at Charlotte Douglas airport on 8 January (Flight International, 14-20 January), the pilots seem to have lost control in pitch, and in both cases the aircraft had just undergone maintenance on their pitch control systems.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chief investigator at the site Bob Gretz says that Colgan Air had replaced two trim tab actuators and the forward elevator trim cable the day before the fatal flight.
Just after take-off the crew reported a "runaway trim", says Gretz. This has been taken to refer to the pitch, or elevator, trim.
Several witnesses have reported that the aircraft became unstable in pitch, then the left wing dropped and the aircraft dived into the shallow water.
Colgan Air says the captain had flown more than 2,800h with 1,358h on type, and the co-pilot 2,500h with 682h on type.
A factor being investigated in the Air Midwest accident, however, was that the aircraft was close to maximum take-off weight, whereas the Colgan Air aircraft was departing for Albany, New York, with only the pilots on board.
Source: Flight International
