Pilots Engaged in Small Talk Before Botched Jet Takeoff
Federal crash investigators said Thursday that the pilots of a US Airways Express flight engaged in small talk and violated other basic safety rules before their jet barreled off the end a runway in January during a botched takeoff.
Nobody was hurt when US Airways Express Flight 2495, a commuter jet operated by PSA Airlines Inc., came to rest in a crushable concrete safety zone at the end of a Charleston, W.Va., runway on Jan. 19. But details of the investigation released by the National Transportation Safety Board, including transcripts of conversations between the two pilots, reveal carelessness and a breakdown in cockpit discipline before, during and after the event.
Federal Aviation Administration rules and airline procedures prohibit cockpit conversations not directly related to the aircraft during taxi, takeoffs, landings and other critical phases of flight.
PSA Airlines is a unit of US Airways Group Inc. It hasn't had a fatal accident or incident since it became part of US Airways, or what was then called US Air, in 1995.
The NTSB is likely to cite Flight 2495—including the crew's failure to deploy engine thrust-reversers while trying to stop on a mountainous runway located at the edge of a cliff—as part of its public session scheduled for later this year focusing on lapses in cockpit training and discipline.
According to transcripts of the cockpit-voice recorders, the pilots engaged in extensive small talk about sports cars and other personal matters before taking the runway at Yeager Airport in Charleston and failed to notice that the flaps, movable devices on the rear of the wings that provide extra lift, weren't properly set.
Captain Thomas Morrow, 38 years old, acknowledged during the course of the investigation that he failed to follow basic safety procedures during portions of the taxi and pre-takeoff checklist. He also never gave a clear command about aborting or rejecting the takeoff.
Capt. Morrow, who has 11 years of experience with PSA, told NTSB investigators he failed to verify that the flaps were deployed correctly before starting the takeoff roll. When the captain realized the mistake as the plane was speeding down the runway at roughly 90 miles an hour, he failed to follow normal procedure which required him to call for the takeoff to be stopped.
Instead, according to testimony to the NTSB, he quickly adjusted the flaps to solve "the stupid problem" of having previously overlooked the incorrect setting. The plane's flight-computers immediately issued a series of warnings—as they are designed to do when flaps are adjusted during takeoff—and the captain then decided to halt the takeoff.
The accident has been closely watched by air-safety experts partly because pilots consider it generally unsafe and quite unusual to adjust the flap settings during takeoff.
The captain told NTSB investigators that he reduced power, applied maximum pressure on the brakes but didn't end up engaging the thrust-reversers because the engine controls may not have been pulled back all the way back to idle.
The NTSB documents reveal that First Officer Robert Saltsgaver, 44, failed to call out speeds, as required, while the plane was decelerating. Officer Saltsgaver had to prompt the captain about whether he wanted the engines shut down to avoid fire dangers, as required after such an event. The captain's initial response was: "Yeah, guess so," according to the transcript.
Roughly two minutes later, as the pilots were talking about what happened and discussing if they had performed the proper checklist to turn off the Bombardier jet's systems, the captain said: "I don't even know what the [expletive] we're supposed to do now."
Both pilots were placed on administrative leave and taken off flying duties, which is normal after such an event.
Details of the investigation are likely to stoke criticism about the professionalism of some commuter-airline crews, at a time when federal air safety regulators already are calling for stepped-up pilot training and greater emphasis on cockpit discipline. The Charleston accident, for instance, is bound to focus more public attention on the issue of "sterile" cockpit rules, which prohibits discussion of extraneous topics during critical phases of flight and taxi.
The first officer told the investigators that "for the most part" PSA crews adhered to sterile cockpit rules, but that it was sometimes difficult to avoid comments. When investigators asked the captain if he had maintained a sterile cockpit before the accident, his response was, "probably not."
In its anticipated public session later this year, the safety board also is expected to examine pilot training at PSA for halting takeoffs in the middle of a roll.
