On February 23rd, 2019, Atlas Air Flight 3591, heading to George Bush Intercontinental from Miami International, crashed near Anahuac, Texas, resulting in three fatalities. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) today held a webcast to determine what happened.
The probable cause
The Aviation Herald has shared the transcript of the discussion. According to investigations, the co-pilot inadvertently activated a form of autopilot and panicked as he incorrectly thought the plane was stalling. The cargo plane, operating on behalf of Amazon, fell into a marshy area at Trinity Bay, chasing the captain, the first officer, and a non-revenue pilot to lose their lives.
“The NTSB determines that the probable cause of this accident was the inappropriate response by the first officer as the pilot flying to an inadvertent activation of the go-around mode, which led to his spatial disorientation and nose-down control inputs that placed the airplane in a steep descent from which the crew did not recover,” the NTSB said, as reported by The Aviation Herald.
“Contributing to the accident was the captain’s failure to adequately monitor the airplane’s flightpath and assume positive control of the airplane to effectively intervene.”
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An industry failure
The group also believes that systemic deficiencies in the aviation industry’s selection and performance measurement practices also contributed to this incident. It also shares that the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) failure to implement the pilot records database in a sufficiently robust and timely manner is a contributing factor.
The chair concluded that if the FAA had done its job, this pilot would not have been employed by Atlas. Subsequently, this accident would not have occurred
A word from Atlas
Simple Flying has seen a statement from John Dietrich, president and chief executive officer of Atlas Air Worldwide. He said that. The accident has had a significant impact on all of the members of staff at the company. The firm remains heartbroken about the losses and it continues to provide the affected families with care and support.
Additionally, Atlas Air has been working closely with the NTSB to learn what took place and why it happened. The institution’s report provides vital findings that will help the airline and the aviation community to improve safety across our industry. He adds that there is a critical need for an enhanced federal pilot records database to provide operators with full visibility of pilot history in the hiring process.
Altogether, Atlas Air will undoubtedly be eager to understand how this crash happened. The airline takes safety seriously, and since the incident, it has made several important enhancements to its hiring, training, and pilot review procedures.
What are your thoughts on what happened on this Atlas Air operation last year? What do you make of the NTSB’s findings? Let us know what you think of the incident in the comment section.