Corporate Airlines crash aircraft lacked terrain warning system

Airline Industry Information, Oct 22, 2004

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

A Corporate Airlines Jetstream 32 aircraft which crashed in Missouri on Tuesday (19 October) killing 13 people was not fitted with a cockpit safety device that would have warned the pilots that they were flying too low.

The terrain avoidance warning systems will become compulsory in the US in March 2005 after the Federal Aviation Administration ruled that the system should be fitted on all aircraft with six or more seats. A spokesperson for Corporate Airlines said that the carrier had not finished installing the system in all its aircraft.

Information released on 21 October 2004 by crash investigators seems to point to the aircraft's pilots flying too low in poor visibility and hitting the ground on its approach to the airport, a type of crash that the terrain avoidance warning system is designed to prevent, reports USA Today.

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