RICHMOND, Ind. – The crew of a company jet should have given up trying to land on a snow-covered runway at Richmond Municipal Airport, according to investigators.
The National Transportation Safety Board released its final Thursday investigation into the February 11, 2019 incident in which the Beech 400 rolled about 750 feet off runway 6/24 and crossed a field and Ind. 227 before hitting one Farm fence came across.
Neither the pilot, the copilot nor the passenger were injured in the crash.
The NTSB said the plane landed about 300 meters along the 5,502-foot runway, leaving it insufficiently clear to stop, especially on a snow-covered runway. After the crash, the pilot checked online resources and found that the airport was closed.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
► The preliminary NTSB report provides details on the Richmond airport accident
►FAA: The Richmond Airport incident will “take a few weeks” to investigate.
►Aircraft slide on a snow-covered runway, crossing Ind. 227
This report states the likely cause of the incident: “The flight crew’s decision to continue an unstable approach in conditions that exceeded the aircraft’s landing capabilities, resulting in runway overflow and land impact.”
Environmental problems of the tail wind and the snow-covered runway were also noted.
The pilot and copilot who worked for Stein’s Aircraft Services in Wisconsin have not been identified. The pilot at the time was a 62-year-old man who had 11,915 flight hours on all aircraft, and the copilot at that time was a 53-year-old man who had 4,082 flight hours.
The flight left Waukesha County Airport at around 9:17 a.m. on Feb. 11, 2019. The pilot said the flight crew checked the weather conditions several times before take-off and saw no evidence of the Richmond Airport runways. However, the airport announced twice before 9 a.m. that there was 2 inches of wet snow on all runways, taxiways, and aprons, and then announced that the airport would be closed at 10:25 a.m. to 10 a.m. on February 11, 2019: 25 on February 12, 2019, the report says.
During the approach in foggy conditions in Richmond, the co-pilot announced that the aircraft was high on the final approach. The pilot saw the blanket of snow on the runway but decided to land anyway, the report said. The 10:06 p.m. landing was more than halfway down the runway, and the use of thrust reversers and brakes did not stop the aircraft.
Analysis of the report revealed that the pilots’ decision to continue the “unstable approach” and land on a snow-covered runway despite the insufficient runway remaining resulted in an overflow. It also said that the runway length would likely have been insufficient, even if it had been dry.
This was the last incident at Richmond Municipal Airport prior to an April 25 crash shortly after takeoff that killed a Richmond pilot.