Accident Embraer EMB-120RT Brasilia N24706,

ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 325273

Date:	Thursday 29 April 1993
Time:	15:55
Type:	Embraer EMB-120RT Brasilia
Owner/operator:	Continental Express
Registration:	N24706
MSN:	120093
Year of manufacture:	1988
Total airframe hrs:	10398 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney Canada PW118
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 30
Aircraft damage:	Substantial, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Pine Bluff, AR - United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Little Rock National Airport, AR (LIT/KLIT)
Destination airport:	Houston-Intercontinental Airport, TX (IAH/KIAH)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Continental Express Flight 2733 departed Little Rock, AR at 15:16 for an IFR flight to Houston. As the airplane was climbing through 15800 feet the flight attendant asked the crew whether they could climb faster to the cruising altitude as she wanted to start cabin service. The pitch attitude was then changed from 3.2 deg to 5.2 deg within 18 seconds. The rate of climb increased from 420 fpm to 900 fpm, but the airspeed had dropped from 173 KIAS to 166 KIAS while climbing through 16100 feet. The pitch angle increased further to 6.4 deg and the airspeed decreased further to 160 knots and later to 141 KIAS. The Brasilia was climbing through FL170 (at 15:33) when the auto flight system disconnected and the stick shaker activated followed by an aural stall warning. The airplane had roll oscillations as high as 90 deg in each direction and pitch attitudes as low as 67 deg nose down. The speed increased to 210 KIAS as the plane descended with 17000 fpm. Control was regained at 5500 feet and an emergency was declared to Memphis ARTCC. A diversion was made to Pine Bluff but the plane overshot the right turn to final for runway 17 due to control problems and the aircraft touched down with 1880 feet of runway remaining. The plane hydroplaned off the runway onto wet rough sod and came to rest 687 feet past the runway end on a heading of 220 deg.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The captain's failure to maintain professional cockpit discipline, his consequent inattention to flight instruments and ice accretion, and his selection of an improper auto flight vertical mode, all of which led to an aerodynamic stall, loss of control, and a forced landing. Factors contributing to the accident were poor crew discipline, including flight crew coordination before the stall and the flight crew's inappropriate actions to recover from the loss of control. Also contributing to the accident was fatigue induced by the flight crew's failure to properly manage provided rest periods."

Accident investigation: