1983 — Oct 11, Air Illinois Flight 710 Crash (pilot error) near Pinckneyville, IL — 10

— 10  NTSB. AAR. Air Illinois Hawker Siddley…Near Pinckneyville, Illinois, Oct 11, 1983. p. 1.

— 10  UPI. “Ten dead in Air Illinois crash.” The Daily Register, Harrisburg, IL, 10-12-1983, p. 1.

 

Narrative Information

 

National Transportation Safety Board Synopsis: “On October 11, 1983, Air Illinois Flight 721 was being operated as a regularly scheduled passenger flight between Capital Airport, Springfield, Illinois and Southern Illinois Airport, Carbondale, Illinois. About 2020 central daylight time, Flight 710 departed Springfield with seven passengers and three crewmembers on board. About 1.5 minutes later, Flight 710 called Springfield departure control and reported that it had experienced a slight electrical problem but that it was continuing to its destination about 40 minutes away.

 

“The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) transcript showed that shortly after takeoff Flight 710’s left generator suffered a complete mechanical failure and that in responding to the failure of the left generator, the first officer mistakenly isolated the right generator and the right generator bus bar from the airplane’s d.c. electrical distribution system and, thereafter, the right generator disconnected from the eight generator bus bar. All subsequent attempts to restore the right generator to the airplane’s d.c. electrical distribution system were unsuccessful, and the airplane proceeded toward Carbondale relying solely on its batteries for d.c. electrical power.

 

“The flight toward Carbondale was conducted in instrument meteorological conditions. The cloud bases in the area of the accident were at 2,000 feet m.s.1. with tops at 10,000 feet. Visibility below the cloud bases was 1 mile in rain, and there were scattered thunderstorms in the area.

 

“About 2053, while the airplane was descending from its instrument flight rules (IFR) assigned altitude of 3,000 feet, battery power was depleted. Flight 710 continued to descend, turned about 180° and crashed in a rural area near Pinckneyville, Illinois, about 22 nmi north northwest of the Southern Illinois Airport. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces, and all 10 persons on board the airplane were killed. There was no postcrash fire.

 

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the captain’s decision to continue the flight toward the more distant destination airport after the loss of d.c. electrical power from both airplane generators instead of returning to the nearby departure airport. The captain’s decision was adversely affected by self-imposed psychological factors which led him to assess inadequately the airplane’s battery endurance after the loss of generator power and the magnitude of the risks involved in continuing to the destination airport. Contributing to the accident was the airline management’s failure to provide and the FAA’s failure to assure an adequate company recurrent flightcrew training program which contributed to the captain’s inability to assess properly the battery endurance of the airplane before making the decision to continue, and led to the inability of the captain and the first officer to cope promptly and correctly with the airplane’s electrical malfunction.” (NTSB. AAR. Air Illinois Hawker Siddley…Near Pinckneyville, Illinois, Oct 11, 1983. 1985, pp. 1-2.)

 

Newspaper

 

UPI: “Pinckneyville (UPI) — An Air Illinois plane flying through a thunderstorm crashed into a wooded area late Tuesday, killing all 10 people on board and scattering debris ‘like pieces of confetti’ in trees on rugged countryside across a half-mile area. Air Illinois Flight 710 was en route to Carbondale when it crashed at 9:10 p.m. about 75 miles southeast of St. Louis. It originated at Chicago’s Meigs Field and had stopped at Springfield…Airline officials said the plane, a British Aerospace Hawker-Siddeley 748, last made contact with flight controllers in Centralia during a routine check 12 minutes before it crashed….State police said the plane, which was equipped to carry 44 passengers, disintegrated as it skidded along the rugged countryside three miles east of Pinckneyville….Air Illinois is based at Southern Illinois Airport at Carbondale and has been in business for 14 years. The crash was the airline’s firs…The airline employs 225 people and has 11 planes…Air Illinois carries approximately 25,000 passengers a month in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. The plane which crashed was 10 years and one day old…” (United Press International (Samuel O. Hancock). “Ten dead in Air Illinois crash.” The Daily Register, Harrisburg, IL, 10-12-1983, p. 1.)

 

Sources

 

National Transportation Safety Board. Aircraft Accident Report. Air Illinois Hawker Siddley, HS 748–2A, N748LL, Near Pinckneyville, Illinois, October 11, 1983 (NTSB/AAR-85-03). Washington, DC: NTSB, 3-5-1985. Accessed 4-10-2017 at: http://libraryonline.erau.edu/online-full-text/ntsb/aircraft-accident-reports/AAR85-03.pdf

 

United Press International (Samuel O. Hancock). “Ten dead in Air Illinois crash.” The Daily Register, Harrisburg, IL, 10-12-1983, p. 1. Accessed 4-10-2017 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/harrisburg-daily-register-oct-12-1983/?tag