Results of Eagle Flight 5401 Accident Investigation

[mckpickle]

If somebody would've just closed the power levers the first OR second time around, there would've been lot less paperwork. FO's - you haven't felt joy until the captain takes the controls from you and then promptly fcuks both parties. That is a precious moment.

With over 1000 hours in the 72 I'll tell you that you don't close the PL's on the bird. That thing has 2 16 diameter props. Closing the PL's flattens the pitch of the blades and you lose a A$$ load of lift. The 72 was a strange beast to land. Nothing like the 42. A good landing was great but it had a tendancy to "skip" twice and settle on the third. That being said, and even though the NTSB said the speed was off I'll tell you when I looked at the animation the first thing I though was holey shiit they are way too slow. She liked to be flown fast and landed flat. That was not an airplane to flare.

 

[T-prop]

With over 1000 hours in the 72 I'll tell you that you don't close the PL's on the bird. That thing has 2 16 diameter props. Closing the PL's flattens the pitch of the blades and you lose a A$$ load of lift. The 72 was a strange beast to land. Nothing like the 42. A good landing was great but it had a tendancy to "skip" twice and settle on the third. That being said, and even though the NTSB said the speed was off I'll tell you when I looked at the animation the first thing I though was holey shiit they are way too slow. She liked to be flown fast and landed flat. That was not an airplane to flare.

The Vref for their weight was appr. 95 knots, not including headwind corrections. Their Vapp should be 110-120 and no more than Vref +10 above the rwy threshold. When you land that light of an ATR 72, you need to bring her to flight idle at about 3'-4' or you'll float half way down the runway and land flat and fast like they did. When you do bring her back to FI it needs to be accompanied by an immediate, cordinated, assertive flare, or she'll land hard and flat. At heavier weights I'll keep 10-15% TQ in until touchdown.

In the FO's defense, when I was new I had a phobia of FI until I knew the plane was on the ground regardless of weight. I crunched her more than once after reducing to FI, until I learned to coordinate it with an immediate and assertive flare.

 

[mayoplane]

Unfortunate event. I wish the best for the flight crew involved in the accident.

......can't help thinking though....God forbid if this was a Pinnacle aircraft, people would have been all over the crew saying "The most dangerous, and will never put my family on them". Things like this happen unfortunately, regardless of what company you may fly for.

 

[mckpickle]

The Vref for their weight was appr. 95 knots, not including headwind corrections. Their Vapp should be 110-120 and no more than Vref +10 above the rwy threshold. When you land that light of an ATR 72, you need to bring her to flight idle at about 3'-4' or you'll float half way down the runway and land flat and fast like they did. When you do bring her back to FI it needs to be accompanied by an immediate, cordinated, assertive flare, or she'll land hard and flat. At heavier weights I'll keep 10-15% TQ in until touchdown.

In the FO's defense, when I was new I had a phobia of FI until I knew the plane was on the ground regardless of weight. I crunched her more than once after reducing to FI, until I learned to coordinate it with an immediate and assertive flare.

I understand what your saying but the ATR Vapp speed was Vapp OR 120. They taught you to pull it back and be at Vref over the numbers but we all know that doesn't work. In this situation had they had the extra speed they would have recovered durring the bounce. The ATR at 90 knots doesn't fly as much as it mushes. I was wondering what the PLA was durring the incident. Truely ashame.