NTSB Animation Collision With Trees on Final Approach Federal Express Flight 1478 Boeing 727-232

Courtesy NTSB

Aircraft Accident Report
Collision With Trees on Final Approach
Federal Express Flight 1478
Boeing 727-232, N497FE
Tallahassee, Florida
July 26, 2002
NTSB Number AAR-04/02
NTIS Number PB2004-910402

Executive Summary: On July 26, 2002, about 0537 eastern daylight time, Federal Express flight 1478, a Boeing 727-232F, N497FE, struck trees on short final approach and crashed short of runway 9 at the Tallahassee Regional Airport (TLH), Tallahassee, Florida. The flight was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a scheduled cargo flight from Memphis International Airport, in Memphis, Tennessee, to TLH. The captain, first officer, and flight engineer were seriously injured, and the airplane was destroyed by impact and resulting fire. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the captains and first officers failure to establish and maintain a proper glidepath during the night visual approach to landing. Contributing to the accident was a combination of the captains and first officers fatigue, the captains and first officers failure to adhere to company flight procedures, the captains and flight engineers failure to monitor the approach, and the first officers color vision deficiency.

The safety issues in this report focus on flight crew performance, flight crew decision-making, pilot fatigue, and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification of pilots with color vision deficiencies. Safety recommendations concerning these issues are addressed to the FAA.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NTSB
• Animation
• Collision
• With
• Trees
• on
• Final
• Approach
• Federal
• Express
• Flight
• 1478
• Boeing
• 727-232
• 747
• 787
• 777
• 737
• 757
• 767
• a330
• a340
• a380
• a400
• airboyd
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• #airboydtv
• yt:quality=high

[LtdBudgetProductions]

Oh shutup about that 9/11 conspiracy bullshit!

[YakAV8R]

Re: Truthers

STFU!! already with your conspiracy crap..no one cares to listen or watch your stupid theories. Go give Charlie Sheen a nice ball rub already!

The F/O never got back at or above glidepath once they decended below 700ft.?? The Capt'n was awful quiet?? Were the trees obscuring the PAPI from their vantage point?

[oracle2world]

"Crunching" a technical term?

[saufi94]

Too low(PAPI lights for proof), end of story

[thatBMWkid]

It turned out that the first officer, who was flying the airplane, was color-blind in the red spectrum and could not distinguish red from white on the PAPI. They concluded he had probably devoloped work-arounds, like using the intensity of the light rather than color determine white from red. In addition, all 3 crewmembers were fatigued and the approach was conducted over a large area of pitch-black forest.

[Cerberus957]

What the DAMN HELL DOES 9-11 HAVE TO DO WITH A FEX EX 727 CRASHING INTO SOME TREES? Do you NOT notice the NTSB video in front of you? Its not of 9-11, I can asure you.

[FLPanthersandMarlins]

uhh captain, this isnt a landing in st. maarten, you dont have to be that low that the trees could touch ya!

[MotelCambodia]

Bad approch , Not lined up, too low. Nothing wrong with going around but then that would look bad.

[MrIssues2]

OMG we hit a TREE

[wolf1010]

I hope visibility was damn near zero because that was just stupid.