Accident Airbus A300F4-622R N155UP,

ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 320696

Date:	Wednesday 14 August 2013
Time:	04:47
Type:	Airbus A300F4-622R
Owner/operator:	United Parcel Service - UPS
Registration:	N155UP
MSN:	841
Year of manufacture:	2003
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney PW4158
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	1 km N of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, AL (BHM) - United States of America
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Cargo
Departure airport:	Louisville International Airport, KY (SDF/KSDF)
Destination airport:	Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, AL (BHM/KBHM)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
UPS Flight 1354, an Airbus A300F4-622R, N155UP, crashed and burst into flames near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM). Both pilots were killed.
Flight 1354 departed Louisville International Airport, KY (SDF) about 05:04 hours EDT on a regular cargo service to Birmingham (BHM).
The flight was on approach to runway 18 when it struck trees. The airplane contacted terrain and crashed in a field, 1000 m short of the runway.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the flight crews continuation of an unstabilized approach and their failure to monitor the aircrafts altitude during the approach, which led to an inadvertent descent below the minimum approach altitude and subsequently into terrain. Contributing to the accident were
(1) the flight crews failure to properly configure and verify the flight management computer for the profile approach;
(2) the captains failure to communicate his intentions to the first officer once it became apparent the vertical profile was not captured;
(3) the flight crews expectation that they would break out of the clouds at 1,000 feet above ground level due to incomplete weather information;
(4) the first officers failure to make the required minimums callouts;
(5) the captains performance deficiencies likely due to factors including, but not limited to, fatigue, distraction, or confusion, consistent with performance deficiencies exhibited during training; and
(6) the first officers fatigue due to acute sleep loss resulting from her ineffective off-duty time management and circadian factor.

METAR:

09:53 UTC / 04:53 local time:
KBHM 140953Z 34004KT 10SM FEW011 BKN035 OVC075 23/22 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP141 T02330222

Accident investigation: