ASN Aircraft accident Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 N100EQ Gaithersburg-Montgomery County Airport, MD (GAI)
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Status:Accident investigation report completed and information captured
Date:Monday 8 December 2014
Time:10:41
Type:Silhouette image of generic E50P model; specific model in this crash may look slightly different
Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
Operator:Sage Aviation
Registration: N100EQ
MSN: 50000082
First flight: 2009
Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney Canada PW617F-E
Crew:Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Passengers:Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Total:Fatalities: 3 / Occupants: 3
Ground casualties:Fatalities: 3
Aircraft damage: Destroyed
Aircraft fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:1 km (0.6 mls) NW of Gaithersburg-Montgomery County Airport, MD (GAI) (   United States of America)
Phase: Approach (APR)
Nature:Private
Departure airport:Chapel Hill-Horace Williams Airport, NC (KIGX), United States of America
Destination airport:Gaithersburg-Montgomery County Airport, MD (GAI/KGAI), United States of America
Narrative:
An Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100 corporate jet was destroyed when it crashed in a residential area at Gaithersburg, Maryland. The three occupants of the plane and three people inside a house were killed.
The takeoff about 09:45 from Chapel Hill-Horace Williams Airport, North Carolina, and the cruise portion of the flight were uneventful.
Before beginning the descent, the pilot set the landing reference (Vref) speed at 92 knots, indicating that he used performance data for operation with the wing and horizontal stabilizer deice system turned off and an airplane landing weight less than the airplane's actual weight. Using the appropriate Normal Icing Conditions checklist and accurate airplane weight, the pilot should have flown the approach at 126 knots (a Vref of 121 knots +5 knots) to account for the icing conditions.
The pilot failed to use the wing and horizontal stabilizer deice system during the approach, even after acknowledging the right seat passenger's observation that it was snowing when the airplane was about 2.8 nautical miles from the destination of Gaithersburg-Montgomery County Airport. The airplane was on approach to runway 14 when the ice accumulation caused an aerodynamic stall at a higher airspeed than would occur without ice accumulation. Because the deice system was not activated by the pilot before landing, the band indications (low speed awareness) on the airspeed display did not appropriately indicate the stall warning speed. Once the airplane stalled, its altitude was too low to recover.
The airplane impacted three houses in the 19700 block of Drop Forge Lane about 3/4 mile from the approach end of the runway.

Probable Cause:

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The NTSB determines that the probable cause of this accident was the pilot's conduct of an approach in structural icing conditions without turning on the airplane's wing and horizontal stabilizer deice system, leading to ice accumulation on those surfaces, and without using the appropriate landing performance speeds for the weather conditions and airplane weight, as indicated in the airplane’s standard operating procedures, which together resulted in an aerodynamic stall at an altitude at which a recovery was not possible."

Accident investigation:

cover
Investigating agency: NTSB
Status: Investigation completed
Duration: 1 year and 6 months
Accident number: NTSB/AAR-16/01
Download report: Final report

Classification:
Icing
Loss of control

METAR Weather report:
14:55 UTC / 09:55 local time:
KGAI 081455Z 04005KT 10SM OVC028 M01/M09 A3062 RMK AO1 52003

15:15 UTC / 10:15 local time:
KGAI 081515Z 05005KT 10SM FEW023 OVC030 M01/M08 A3061 RMK AO1

15:35 UTC / 10:35 local time:
KGAI 081535Z 04006KT 10SM FEW021 OVC032 M01/M08 A3061 RMK AO1
Wind: 040 degrees at 6 knots; Visibility: 10+ miles; Clouds: few at 2100 feet, overcast cloud deck at 3200 feet AGL; Temperature: -1°C; Dewpoint: -8°C; Pressure: 1036.7 mb

15:55 UTC / 10:55 local time:
KGAI 081555Z 05005KT 10SM OVC032 M01/M08 A3060 RMK AO1
Wind: 050 degrees at 5 knots; Visibility: 10+ miles; Clouds: overcast cloud deck at 3200 feet AGL; Temperature: -1°C; Dewpoint: -8°C; Pressure: 1036.3 mb


Follow-up / safety actions

NTSB issued 3 Safety Recommendations

Show all...

Photos

photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
accident date: 08-12-2014
type: Embraer EMB-500 Phenom 100
registration: N100EQ
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
FDR parameters for last 10 minutes of the flight
photo of Embraer-EMB-500-Phenom-100-N100EQ
FDR anti ice parameters for entire flight
 

Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Chapel Hill-Horace Williams Airport, NC to Gaithersburg-Montgomery County Airport, MD as the crow flies is 394 km (246 miles).
Accident location: Exact; deduced from official accident report.

This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.
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