Boeing 727-232
Tallahassee, FL, USA · 2002-07-26·N497FE
What happened
NTSB summary, verbatimThe Safety Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-04/02. On July 26, 2002, at 0537 eastern daylight time, a FedEx Boeing 727, N497FE, crashed during landing at Tallahassee, Florida. The airplane was operating as Flight 1478 from Memphis, Tennessee, to Tallahassee. The airplane crashed short of the runway, and was subsequently destroyed by fire. All three crewmembers were seriously injured.
Photographs
99the aircraft, and what the investigators foundPhotographs are NTSB docket attachments — works of the US government, in the public domain. Captions are the Board’s own.
Probable cause
the Board's determinationThe captain's and first officer's failure to establish and maintain a proper glidepath during the night visual approach to landing. Contributing to the accident was a combination of the captain's and first officer's fatigue, the captain's and first officer's failure to adhere to company flight procedures, the captain's and flight engineer's failure to monitor the approach, and the first officer's color vision deficiency.
Safety recommendations
2 issuedwhat changed because of this accidentTO THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION: Conduct research to determine the effectiveness of each of the current Federal Aviation Administration-approved color vision test protocols (including the color signal light test) at effectively screening out pilot applicants with color vision deficiencies that could impair their ability to perform color-related critical aviation tasks including (but not limited to) correct interpretation of glideslope information and in-cockpit displays that use color to convey information. The research should take into account the time typically available to perform each task, particularly under emergency conditions, and the potential effect of mild hypoxia (as might occur at typical cabin altitudes) on color vision deficiencies.
TO THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION: Based on the results of the research requested in Safety Recommendation A-04-46, develop a standard battery of tests to be performed at least once on each applicant for a Class 1 or 2 medical certificate that would prevent applicants with color vision deficiencies that could impair their ability to perform color-related critical aviation tasks from being certificated without limitations.
Sequence of events
4 timed eventsfrom the FDR factual report · claude-fable-5-1 (in-session)- SRN 3,455-3,605takeoff (Memphis)p.4Previous takeoff at Memphis plotted (Attachment II-8, general flight parameters)
- 09:27:00-09:37:30 (report local)approachp.4Last 10 minutes of the accident flight: general flight parameters (II-1), flight controls (II-4), discretes (II-7)
- 09:35:00-09:37:30 (report local)final approach/impactp.4Last 2.5 minutes (II-2, II-5) and last minute 09:36:25-09:37:25 (II-3, II-6) of the approach to Tallahassee ending in the crash short of the runway
- 09:37:25.042 (report local; SRN 7,201)impactp.2Final FDR data recorded (impact)
NTSB analysis
from the final reportThe Safety Board's full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-04/02. On July 26, 2002, at 0537 eastern daylight time, a FedEx Boeing 727, N497FE, crashed during landing at Tallahassee, Florida. The airplane was operating as Flight 1478 from Memphis, Tennessee, to Tallahassee. The airplane crashed short of the runway, and was subsequently destroyed by fire. All three crewmembers were seriously injured.