Factual Report: Pilot blames fatigue for hard landing

Fairchild SA-227-AC, Grain Valley, Mo., Aug. 17, 2006–The captain of the Sierra West Airlines flight cited lack of sleep as the reason he made a hard landing five feet short of the runway threshold at East Kansas City Airport at 3:51 p.m. He said that he and the first officer, who was slightly injured, had gone on duty the previous day at 8:30 p.m. at El Paso and had had no sleep since. On one of the first flights that day, the aircraft had hit the wingtip of another airplane, was repaired with duct tape, then the crew changed airplanes for subsequent flights to Frankfort, Ky.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Tuscaloosa, Ala., to pick up parts to repair the damaged aircraft.