Date:	Tuesday 26 December 1989
Time:	22:30
Type:	British Aerospace 3101 Jetstream 31
Owner/operator:	United Express
Registration:	N410UE
MSN:	776
Year of manufacture:	1987
Total airframe hrs:	4972 hours
Cycles:	7168 flights
Engine model:	Garrett TPE331-10UG-514H
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Pasco-Tri-Cities Airport, WA (PSC) -   United States of America
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Yakima Air Terminal, WA (YKM/KYKM)
Destination airport:	Pasco-Tri-Cities Airport, WA (PSC/KPSC)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
United Express Flight 2415 took off from Seattle for a flight to Pasco via Yakima. While flying into Yakima, the flight encountered icing conditions. After landing, the first officer (together with a deadheading pilot) knocked ice of the wings. The NPA station agent at Yakima asked the captain if he wanted to deice the aircraft, or just the tail plane, since both pilots just removed the ice from the wings. The captain declined both offers.
The aircraft took off again at 22.03 using runway 27. Since Pasco tower was closing at 22:30, Seattle Center cleared the flight for an ILS runway 21R approach. At 22:30 the aircraft was observed descending fast from a higher than normal altitude. The aircraft suddenly nosed over and crashed short of the runway.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The flight crew's decision to continue an unstabilized instrument landing system approach that led to a stall, most likely of the horizontal stabilizer, and loss of control at low altitude. Contributing to the accident was the air traffic controller's improper vectors that positioned the airplane inside the outer marker while it was still well above the glide slope. Contributing to the stall and loss of control was the accumulation of airframe ice that degraded the aerodynamic performance of the airplane."

NTSB Safety Recommendations A-94-70 through -72
Ian Churchill
NTSB Safety Recommendations A-92-59 through -65
NTSB/AAR-91/06

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