Some 35 seconds after Air Midwest Flight 5481 had begun its takeoff roll on Charlotte’s Runway R18 at 8:45 a.m. for a half-hour flight to Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in Greer, S.C., Leslie issued an emergency distress call to ATC. Under federal regulations, Air Midwest was responsible for the outsourced maintenance on US Airways Express Flight 5481, which crashed on Jan. 8, 2003. Instead of 14º of downward travel, there was only 7º. The captain was the flying pilot, and the first officer was the nonflying pilot. Air Midwest Flight 5481 (operating as US Airways Express 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. The accident occurred at 35° 12' 25" north latitude and 80° 56' 46.85" west longitude during daylight hours. The restricted elevator travel alone and the aft CG alone would not have been sufficient to cause the uncontrolled pitch up that led to the flight 5481 accident. The mechanic also stated that he bypassed step f, to adjust the center-to-center length of the forward push-pull tube to a dimension of 15.12 inches ±0.06 inch, with the quality assurance inspector's concurrence. . The captain was the flying pilot, and the first officer was the non-flying pilot. The pitch trim control system includes a single movable trim tab for each elevator and a cable-driven jackscrew actuator for each tab. There is no way to apply power for the take off roll when set in landing on the Beech 1900. While both receive initial training and some level of oversight, mechanics do not always receive ongoing (recurrent) training and regular practical examinations (check rides). After 0846:53, the pitch trim started moving AND, and, about 3 seconds later, the captain called for the landing gear to be retracted. After the Air Midwest accident the FAA began actively sponsoring the creation of a more reliable weight/balance detector and I'd be very surprised if there isn't one on the market today. The ANU turnbuckle was almost fully contracted, and the AND turnbuckle was almost fully extended. Figure: Beech 1900D pitch control system, from NTSB AAR-04/01, figure 4. NOTE: Verify threads are visible through the inspection holes at the end of the pushrods after adjustments are made. In fact, the mechanic stated that access to the rig pin hole was adequate without removing the seats and the floorboards because the foreman showed the mechanic a small access panel that needed to be opened to access the forward bellcrank rig pin hole. The crash of Air Midwest flight 5481 still serves as a useful example of the danger of latent failures. The ramp agent estimated that the forward cargo compartment was about 98 percent full by volume. Pilots described the first officer as a talented and very precise pilot with good attention to detail and good communication skills. Air Midwest Flight 5481 operating as US Airways Express Flight 5481, was a flight from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport near the cities of Greenville, South Carolina and Spartanburg, South Carolina; on January 8, 2003 a Beechcraft 1900D operated by Air Midwest as US … She had only one type rating (aircraft over 14,500 lbs require a specific license for the … Movement of the trim tabs in the downward direction creates an upward aerodynamic moment on the elevator and results in an ANU pitching moment. This process would determine whether the elevator achieved the correct deflection for the full forward and full aft movement of the control column. This is one of those cases. The aircraft's most recent service involved adjusting the elevator control cable, and was performed two nights before the … Between the night of January 6 and the morning of January 7, 2003, the accident airplane underwent a detail six (D6) maintenance check at Air Midwest's HTS [Tri-State/Milton J. Ferguson Field, Huntington, WV] maintenance station. Further, ground tests showed that turnbuckles adjusted to the lengths of those found in the wreckage would result in limited downward elevator travel, although the FDR would indicate that full downward travel was available. The limit of travel for each of the elevator control horns is contact with an up stop bolt or a down stop bolt. FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson. They could have determined the precise amount of available elevator travel had they measured flight data recorder pitch data and had they checked actual elevator travel using a "travel board" from its level.