Солтүстік Каролинадағы 2003 жылғы авиа апаттық оқиғасы

2003 aviation accident in North Carolina, United States

Air Midwest Flight 5481 was a Beechcraft 1900D on a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina. On the morning of January 8, 2003, the Beechcraft stalled while departing Charlotte Douglas International Airport and crashed into an aircraft hangar, killing all 21 passengers and crew aboard and injuring one person on the ground.

Air Midwest Flight 5481 (operating as a US Airways Express flight under a franchise agreement with US Airways) was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Charlotte Douglas International Airport near Charlotte, North Carolina, to Greenville–Spartanburg International Airport in Greer, South Carolina. On January 8, 2003, Flight 5481 was operated by a Beechcraft 1900D (registration number ). The aircraft was originally delivered new to Air Midwest in 1996, and had accumulated 15,003 flight hours at the time of the crash. The crew consisted of Captain Catherine "Katie" Leslie (age 25) and First Officer Jonathan Gibbs (age 27). Leslie was the youngest captain flying for the airline at that time, and had accrued 1,865 hours total company flying time, including 1,100 hours as the pilot in command of a Beechcraft 1900D. Gibbs had 706 hours of flying time in Beechcraft 1900D aircraft. Both pilots were based in Charlotte.

On the morning of January 8, 2003, ramp agents loaded 23 checked bags onto Flight 5481, including two unusually heavy bags. Though both pilots pushed forward on the control column, the plane did not respond to their input, which led to the stalling of the aircraft. The aircraft's most recent service involved adjusting the elevator control cable, and was performed two nights before the crash by Vertex Aerospace at a repair facility located at Tri State Airport in Huntington, West Virginia. The investigation indicated the mechanic who worked on the elevator cables had never worked on this type of aircraft, and turnbuckles controlling tension on the cables to the elevators had been set incorrectly, resulting in insufficient elevator travel, leading to the pilots not having sufficient pitch control. Although normally a postadjustment control test would be conducted to ensure that the maintenance had been carried out correctly, and that the surface was operating properly, the maintenance supervisor who was instructing the mechanic decided to skip this step. The instructing maintenance supervisor was also the quality assurance inspector on the test, as the primary inspector was unavailable that evening. Although the pilots had totaled up the ostensible take off weight of the aircraft before the flight and determined it to be within limits, the plane was actually overloaded and out of balance due to the use of FAA approved (but actually incorrect) passenger weight estimates. When checked, the NTSB found that the actual weight of an average passenger was more than 20 pounds (9 kg) greater than estimated. After checking the actual weight of baggage retrieved from the crash site and passengers (based on information from next of kin and the medical examiner), the aircraft was found to be actually 580 lb (264 kg) above its maximum allowable take off weight, with its center of gravity 5% to the rear of the allowable limit. Neither problem alone would have caused the loss of control, which explains why it had previously been flown without incident and had safely departed Huntington, West Virginia. Air Midwest ceased operations in 2008. A memorial for the victims is located outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.

The crash was featured in season five of the Canadian made, internationally distributed documentary series Mayday, in an episode titled "Dead Weight".