On 5 April 1991, Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight ASA 2311 suffered a major air crash while landing near the airport north of Brunswick. All 23 people on board were killed, including NASA astronaut Sony Carter and former Senator John Tower.
The flight was operated by Embraer's Brasilia 120 twin-turboprop aircraft, a short-haul airliner carrying approximately 30 passengers. The engine used in this type of airliner is a propeller engine different from a normal jet engine. Jet engines are driven by exhaust, while these engines use propellers to be more fuel-efficient and suitable for small airliners. Four years later, another Brasilia aircraft from Embraer was killed in rural Georgia under similar circumstances, with a death toll of nine.
Thirty-four-year-old Captain Mark Friedley, who was hired by Atlantic Southeast Airlines in May 1981, is experienced enough to fly three different commercial aircraft, including the EMB-120. The investigation revealed that at the time of the accident, he accumulated nearly twelve thousand flight hours, of which 5,720 were in the EMBA 120. In June 1988, Co-Pilot Hank Johnston had been with Atlantic Southeast Airlines for almost three years and was a qualified flight instructor. At the time of the accident, he accumulated about 3,925 hours of flight time. The aircraft was an EMB 120 Brasilia (registration N270AS) manufactured by Embraer on November 30, 1990, and was equipped with two Pratt & Whitney PW-118 engines and Hamilton Standard 14RF-9 propellers. The plane accumulated about 1,000 flight hours before the accident.
At first, flight 2311 was operated by another EMB-120 (N228AS). However, the aircraft was delayed due to technical problems, so the crew was forced to switch to the N270AS. It is understood that the replacement of the machine is not a problem for the crew. And the plane had flown four times that day without any problems. During the flight, the captain noticed storm clouds ahead and asked the tower to turn right to avoid the weather conditions. The tower received an application and allowed him to avoid the weather conditions on his own and maintain his current height. In preparation for the right turn, the captain also informed the passengers that the need to turn right due to weather conditions may cause bumps, and asked the passengers to fasten their seat belts. After that, they managed to bypass the storm cloud and were about to reach their destination, Greencoe Airport. Greencoe Airport was previously a military base with only one runway, usually only for private jets and small short-haul passengers flying to the Georgia coast. About five minutes before landing, the tower confirmed to the captain whether the airport could be seen, and the captain could already see it, so the tower told the captain that he could land on the Glyncco J1 runway.
Everyone, including the captain, the co-pilot and the tower, thought everything was normal. The captain was getting ready to land, and he slowed down his approach, lowered the landing gear, and lit up three green lights. However, at this time, the captain noticed an unusual sound. Later he found that the pull on the left side of the plane was relatively large, and he wanted to reduce the horsepower on the left to offset the right side of the plane. The crew encountered unexpected circumstances, for which the plane became increasingly difficult to control less than a thousand feet above the ground. The plane rolled to the left uncontrollably, but the crew didn't know which part of the plane was in trouble and didn't have time to think about it. The professional explained that the crew's first instinct must be to use the opposite aileron and turn the control lever to the right to try to avoid tumbling. The captain had been trying to rescue the overturned plane by pulling it up, but in vain, and eventually the plane crashed in the woods.
It was a very tragic crash, with 20 passengers and three crew members killed at the moment of impact. Because there were two celebrities among the passengers, one was Theacovites Sony Carter, an astronaut who had achieved many achievements at a young age, and the other was John Ta, who served as a senator for four consecutive years and served as an adviser to the president, the investigation of the accident received attention from all sides of the world. The superior appointed Jim Rhett, a senior investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board, to investigate the cause of the accident, and he collected evidence through some of the wreckage of the plane. He believes the dense wreckage represents the plane hitting the ground at a great angle. And witnesses in the nearby park saw the crash, and most witnesses said the plane suddenly turned to the left until the wings were perpendicular to the ground. The plane then descended in a nose-nosed posture and disappeared behind the woods near the airport.
Other witnesses indicated that he heard a loud noise, as if it were engine noise. A pilot traveling southwest of the airport told investigators he saw the plane flying normally at normal altitude, which he thought was normal. The plane completed a 180-degree turn from the foot of the downwind and continued to turn. But then he saw the left side of the plane tilt slightly, then roll to the left until the wings were vertical. The plane was then planted in the woods, but he insisted the propeller was still in operation.
Finally, the National Transportation Safety Board conducted a hypothetical demonstration of the accident in a simulator. After the plane was in control, the pilots tried to keep the plane balanced. They ruled out causes of accidents such as the failure of asymmetrical wings, ailerons or rudders. Engine faults are also ruled out by detailed inspections by both engines. The circumstances of this accident indicate that severe asymmetrical thrust conditions caused the aircraft to turn left and roll over, causing the aircraft to lose control. Engine and propeller inspections showed that the engine was operating normally, but the propeller system malfunctioned, resulting in an unusually low angle of the propeller blades on the left side of the aircraft, so the towing conditions were larger, resulting in a series of incorrect measures that led to the crash of the aircraft.
None of the crash survived, and it was extremely tragic. The truth of the accident that has attracted attention due to the celebrity effect is actually not many people who want to know, they just want to increase their own heat with the guidance of public opinion. And the media focused only on the so-called parliamentarians and astronauts, and the accident also took two children as young as six and nine years old out of the world. It's not that they are ruthless, but I just want to express whether it is looking for the truth or simply rubbing heat, I hope that they can be worthy of their original intentions!
Well, this issue of the air crash is here, if you have any different opinions you can poke the comments below. Thanks for watching.