USAir Flight 5050

Infobox Airliner accident|name=USAir Flight 5050
Date=September 20, 1989
Type=Aborted takeoff
Site=LaGuardia Airport, New York
Fatalities=2
Injuries=21
Aircraft Type=Boeing 737-401
Operator=USAir
Tail Number=N416US
Passengers=57
Crew=6
Survivors=61

USAir Flight 5050 was an unscheduled ferry flight commissioned to be flown from New York's La Guardia Airport to Charlotte International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 20, 1989.

The Incident

Flight 5050 was an aircraft repositioning flight for aircraft N416US, which had originally been scheduled to operate flight 1846 to Charlotte, before it was canceled earlier in the day due to severe thunderstorm activity in the area. Due to the thunderstorms, many airlines, including USAir, had canceled several hundred flights out of New York City airports leaving many passengers stranded. Despite this, most ticketed passengers for the canceled flights had already been rebooked for other dates of travel, refunded, or rerouted through other airlines. Simultaneously, many USAir employees and family members flying stand-by that day on their airline benefits had also been left stranded due to the flight cancellations and overbooking of non-canceled flights with no other options of travel; many of whom had waited all day to get a flight out. In the evening, a break in the weather allowed for flights to resume normally, and aircraft N416US was assigned to be repositioned to the USAir hub in Charlotte, North Carolina as a ferry (empty) flight, carrying only essential flight crew and no passengers. The flight crew for the ferry flight had been reassigned from another canceled flight to Norfolk, Virginia, and were chosen due to scheduling requirements for them in Charlotte; the crew was scheduled to fly out of Charlotte in the morning. Through a request from employees, the empty ferry flight was changed by USAir dispatchers and approved by management to be operate as a passenger flight for the purpose of carrying the stranded stand-by passengers to the Charlotte hub where they would have better chances of reaching their final destinations. As this occurred, the Captain had expressed concerns of further delays due to boarding and confirming of stand-by passengers, and was opposed to the idea, concerned that the flight crew might go over the duty time limits governing airline flights if they waited too long to board. After the aircraft doors were closed and the flight was preparing to push back from the gate, gate agents requested permission to load more stand-by passengers onto the flight, but the Captain refused this request due to concerns over further delays; the extra passengers would've filled every seat on the flight.

The co-pilot was to be in command for the takeoff portion of the flight in an attempt to allow him to gain more flying experience, a typical procedure for flight crews. As the aircraft began its takeoff roll down runway 31 at LaGuardia, the rudder was mistakenly banked 16 degrees to the left; when in the air, this would have normally made the plane yaw slightly to the left, yet, while still on the ground, the banking instead caused flight 5050 to pull hard to the left as it rolled down the runway. Noticing the error, the pilot assumed command and began aborting the takeoff. However, since too much time had elapsed between the take off roll and the noticing of the error, the plane no longer had sufficient runway distance to stop. The Boeing 737 continued rolling and overran the runway, landing in the East River and breaking into three pieces. Of the 63 passengers aboard, two passengers (Betsy Brogan and her mother-in-law, Ayles Brogan, wife and mother of a USAir employee) were killed. The NTSB investigation cited crew error as the cause of the accident; the aircraft was less than a year old.

ee also

*Water landing

External links

* [http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR90-03.pdf NTSB report]