Discrepancies with company procedures and background checks are among the findings revealed in the NTSB’s public docket in its investigation into the fatal crash of an Execuflight Hawker 700A on November 11 last year as it approached to land at Ohio’s Akron Fulton International Airport (AKR) in IFR conditions.
The aircraft departed Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport at 2:10 p.m. EST for the 35-minute flight to AKR, the crew’s second trip leg for the day. The NTSB transcript of cockpit voice recorder (CVR) audio shows that the first officer (FO) was the pilot flying, with the captain monitoring the flight. Visibility worsened as the aircraft descended toward AKR, and the captain admonished the FO several times for his difficulty in maintaining a stabilized approach to Runway 25.
“Look, you’re going 120. You can’t keep decreasing your speed,” the captain said approximately two minutes before the crash, later stating, “You’re diving...Don’t dive. Two thousand feet per minute buddy.” Seconds before impact, the captain instructed the FO to level off, followed by the sound of a “rattle similar to a stick shaker” and a ground proximity warning system (GPWS) alert to “pull up.” Witnesses told investigators the aircraft was in a banking left turn as it crashed into an apartment building two miles from the runway. Both pilots and the seven passengers on board perished.
Execuflight hired both pilots in June last year. The captain had been terminated from his previous job after failing to appear for recurrent training, and the FO was fired from his past job for “unsatisfactory work performance” and concerns about his proficiency in retaining procedures and checklists. Neither incident was closely investigated as part of five-year background checks performed by agents for Execuflight, as required under the Pilot Records Improvement Act of 1996. Both crewmembers successfully completed Execuflight’s training, and they had flown together three times before the accident flight.
Although Execuflight had no formal policy regarding delegation of PIC responsibilities between crewmembers, several company pilots and a former director of operations told investigators that captains would typically operate revenue flights with passengers on board, with first officers flying empty legs until they gained familiarity with the aircraft.