Passengers 15 Fatalities 12 Start date January 6, 1974 Injuries (nonfatal) 5 Survivor 5 | Crew 2 Survivors 5 Number of deaths 12 Operator Air East | |
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Summary Failure to maintain flying speed; Improper IFR operation; Premature descent below safe approach slope Site Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States Destination Johnstown–Cambria County Airport Similar 1974 Norfolk mid‑air co, Air Vietnam Flight 706 hijacking, Turkish Airlines Flight 301, Buffalo 461, Northwest Airlines Flight 6231 | ||
Air East Flight 317 was a scheduled commuter flight from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. On January 6, 1974, while on approach to Johnstown–Cambria County Airport, the Beechcraft Model 99A operating the flight crashed short of the runway after it failed to maintain flying speed and made a premature descent below the safe approach slope for undetermined reasons. Of the 15 passengers and two crew members on board, 11 passengers and the aircraft captain were killed.
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Accident
Flight 317 took off from Pittsburgh International Airport at 6:15 p.m. on January 6, 1974 on a regularly scheduled commuter flight to Johnstown. The pilot was David Brannan, 40, and the co-pilot was Gerald Knouff, 24. There were 15 passengers aboard.
At around 7:38 p.m., while on approach to Runway 33 at Johnstown–Cambria County Airport, the plane descended below the lowest safe approach slope, then stalled, at which point the pilots lost control. The plane clipped the top of a bank of elevated approach lights, soared over a highway and slammed into the top of a steep embankment approximately 100 yards short of the runway. "It was a matter of five feet, and he would have been clear," Warren Krise, an Air East official, said afterward.
The plane was torn apart on impact. "The nose was thrown 50-75 yards from impact, the wings were nearly shorn from the fuselage and the tail section was severed completely," a contemporary news report said. Although spilled aviation fuel soaked the wreckage and many of the passengers, there was no fire.
Brannan, the pilot, was ejected from the airplane and killed. Knouff, the co-pilot, was hospitalized in critical condition, but survived. 10 of the 15 passengers aboard were killed instantly, and another died later at a local hospital, bringing the total death toll to 12. The four surviving passengers were all seriously injured; two of them remained hospitalized for more than two months after the crash.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved in the accident, registration N125AE, was a Beechcraft Model 99A owned by Allegheny Airlines and operated by Air East. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 aircraft engines, made its first flight in 1969 and had seen a total of 7,503 flight hours before the crash.
The airplane was damaged beyond repair in the crash.
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the crash and concluded that the crash was caused by "a premature descent below a safe approach slope followed by a stall and loss of aircraft control." Although the reason for the premature descent could not be determined, investigators concluded it was probably the result of either "a deliberate descent below the published minimum descent altitude to establish reference with the approach lights and make the landing," "a visual impairment or optical illusion created by the runway/approach lighting systems," and/or "downdrafts near the approach end of the runway."
Aftermath
The crash directly led to the end of Air East. On March 7, 1974, the Federal Aviation Administration revoked Air East's operator's certificate and ordered the airline to immediately halt all operations, charging Air East with using unqualified pilots and mechanically unsafe aircraft. An FAA spokesman said the shutdown order stemmed from an investigation into Air East's operations and records in the aftermath of the crash.
The shutdown order stated in part: "By reason of numerous violations, unsafe practices, policies, and coercing tactics... Air East, Inc., has demonstrated that it does not possess the judgement, responsibility or compliance disposition required of a holder of an air taxi commercial operators certificate."