Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 was a controlled flight into terrain of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 during approach to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. The incident occurred on September 11, 1974, killing 72 of the 82 people on board. The scheduled flight was from Charleston Municipal Airport to Chicago O'Hare, with an intermediate stop in Charlotte.
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the accident determined multiple crew errors were the primary cause of the crash.
On the morning of September 11, 1974, while conducting an instrument approach in dense ground fog into Douglas Municipal Airport in Charlotte, the aircraft crashed more than three miles (5 km) short of runway 36, killing 72 of the 82 on board.[2] Thirteen survived the initial impact at 7:34 am EDT, including the co-pilot and one flight attendant,[3] but three more ultimately died from severe burn injuries.[4] One of the initial survivors died of injuries 29 days after the accident.
Among the fatalities were the vice president for academic affairs of the Medical University of South Carolina, James William Colbert Jr.,[5] father of television personality Stephen Colbert, who has spoken candidly about the loss of his father and two brothers in the crash.[6]
An Eastern Airlines DC-9-31, similar to the aircraft involved
The aircraft involved was a five-year-old McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 registered as N8984E, which was delivered to Eastern Airlines on January 30, 1969.[7]:25
The captain was 49-year-old James Edward Reeves, who had been with Eastern Air Lines since 1956. He had 8,876 flight hours, including 3,856 hours on the DC-9.[7]:24
The first officer was 36-year-old James M. Daniels, Jr. He had been with Eastern Air lines since 1966 and had 3,016 flight hours, including 2,693 hours on the DC-9.[7]:24
While investigating this accident the NTSB reviewed the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and found that the flight crew engaged in unnecessary and "nonpertinent" conversation during the approach phase of the flight, discussing subjects "ranging from politics to used cars."[7] The NTSB concluded that conducting such nonessential chatter can distract pilots from their flying duties during the critical phases of flight, such as instrument approach to landing, and recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) establish rules and educate pilots to focus exclusively on flying tasks while operating at low altitudes. The FAA, after more than six years of consideration, finally published the Sterile Cockpit Rule in 1981.[8][9]
Another possible cause of the crash discussed by the NTSB in its review of the CVR was that the crew was apparently trying to visually locate the Charlotte airport, while executing an instrument approach in the presence of low-lying fog. In addition, a persistent attempt to visually identify the nearby Carowinds amusement park tower, known as "Carowinds Tower" to pilots,[10] rising to an elevation of 1,314 feet (401 m), or 340 feet (105 m) above ground level (AGL), may have further distracted and confused the flight crew. The first officer (co-pilot) was operating the flight controls, and none of the required altitude callouts were made by the captain, which compounded the flight crew's near total lack of altitude awareness.
During the investigation, the issue of the flammability of passengers' clothing materials was raised. There was evidence that passengers who wore double-knit synthetic fiber clothing articles sustained significantly worse burn injuries during the post-crash fire than passengers who wore articles made from natural fibers.[7]
The NTSB released its final report on May 23, 1975.[7] The NTSB concluded that the accident was caused by the flight crew's lack of altitude awareness and poor cockpit discipline.[11] The NTSB issued the following official Probable Cause statement for the accident:[11]
"The flight crew's lack of altitude awareness at critical points during the approach due to poor cockpit discipline in that the crew did not follow prescribed procedure".
disjux on December 2nd, 2019 at 06:24 UTC »
Some of the best comedians/comedic actors have incredibly tragic stories.
Kelsey Grammer's sister was raped and murdered when he was 20, and later his half-brothers died in an accident while on vacation.
craponapoopstick on December 2nd, 2019 at 05:54 UTC »
If you haven't watched it, it's really worth the time. Here's Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert's conversation on grief.
foyeldagain on December 2nd, 2019 at 05:02 UTC »
It’s crazy that 9/11 was such an important date to Colbert long before it was for the rest of us. The amusement park came into play not because the crew was randomly looking at various landmarks but because the amusement park’s tower was a common altitude marker to pilots. The problem was they were on an instrument approach because of the fog and shouldn’t have really considered the tower.