19 October 2004 - Corporate Airlines 5966

Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 was a flight route from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, United States to Kirksville Regional Airport in unincorporated Adair County, Missouri, near the city of Kirksville. Corporate Airlines (now RegionsAir, defunct) flew the route as part of the AmericanConnection network, an affiliate of American Airlines. On October 19, 2004, a Jetstream 32 twin-engine turboprop flying the route crashed on the approach to Kirksville Airport, killing thirteen people and seriously injuring two.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the pilots’ failure to follow established procedures and properly conduct a non-precision instrument approach at night in instrument meteorological conditions, including their descent below the minimum descent altitude before required visual cues were available (which continued un-moderated until the airplane struck the trees) and their failure to adhere to the established division of duties between the flying and non-flying (monitoring) pilot. The NTSB analysis of the Cockpit Voice Recorder suggests that both pilots were looking outside the cockpit for visual cues to the location of the airport and failed to realize how low they had descended below the glidepath.

HOT Crewmember hot microphone voice or sound source
RDO Radio transmission from accident aircraft
CAM Cockpit area microphone voice or sound source
CTR1 Radio transmission from first Kansas City center controller
ACFT? Radio transmission from unidentified aircraft
CTR2 Radio transmission from second Kansas City center controller
AWOS Radio transmission from Kirksville Automated Weather Observation System
KOPS Radio transmission from Kirksville operations
-1 Voice identified as Pilot-in-Command (PIC)
-2 Voice identified as Co-Pilot (SIC)
-3 Voice identified as aircraft mechanical voice
-B Sound heard over both pilot channels
-? Voice unidentified
* Unintelligible word
@ Non-pertinent word
# Expletive
- - - Break in continuity
( ) Questionable insertion
[ ] Editorial insertion
... Pause
Note: Times are expressed in central daylight time (CDT).

1934:51 HOT-1 come on you ##.
1934:52 HOT-2 # it. pig, isn't it?
1934:55 HOT-1 sure is.
1935:06 HOT-1 what happened to our identifier?
1935:09 HOT-B [sound of Morse code identifier] R-K.
1935:10 HOT-1 I don't have it any more. do you? localizer?
1935:16 HOT-B [sound of Morse code identifier] I-I-R-K.
1935:19 HOT-2 I got it.
1935:20 HOT-1 okay.
1935:22 HOT-1 DME went off line.
1935:26 HOT-2 not on my side. five point seven.
1935:28 HOT-1 okay.
1935:29 HOT-2 five point six.
1935:30 HOT-1 okay, mine's back.
1935:31 HOT-2 five point five.
1935:38 HOT-1 I can hear it.
1935:39 HOT-2 there you go, KEMMY. down to thirteen twenty.
1935:42 HOT-1 thirteen twenty, here we go.
1936:02 HOT-1 when we get within a hundred feet if you'd uh, arm that uh....
1936:06 HOT-2 disarm it?
1936:06 HOT-1 ... director again yeah uh, altitude.
1936:08 HOT-2 oh for * [one member heard "altitude"], okay.
1936:18 HOT-1 c'mon, go down there.
1936:23 HOT-2 five hundred, four hundred feet to go.
1936:24 HOT-1 *.
1936:30.6 HOT-3 five hundred.
1936:33.9 HOT-2 thirteen twenty.
1936:35.7 HOT-1 what do you think?
1936:35.9 HOT-1 thank you.
1936:36.8 HOT-1 I can see ground there.
1936:37.2 HOT-3 minimums, minimums.
1936:41.9 HOT-2 I can't see #.
1936:43.5 HOT-1 yeah, oh there it is. approach lights in sight.
1936:44.2 HOT-3 two hundred.
1936:44.7 HOT-2 * in sight.
1936:46.6 HOT-2 continue.
1936:47.7 HOT-1 we get rid of the director.
1936:48.6 HOT-B [sound of beep]
1936:50.5 CAM [sound similar to increase in engine RPM]
1936:50.5 HOT-1 getting a little slow.
1936:50.6 HOT-2 flaps thirty five?
1936:51.9 HOT-1 no....
1936:52.2 HOT-3 sink rate.
1936:52.8 HOT-1 ...no.
1936:53.2 HOT-2 trees.
1936:54.0 HOT-B [sound similar to stall warning horn]
1936:54.4 HOT-1 no, stop.
1936:55.2 CAM [sound of impact]
1936:56.6 HOT-1 oh, my God.
1936:57.0 CAM [sounds of numerous impacts]
1936:57.5 HOT-2 holy #.
1936:58.6 END of TRANSCRIPT

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