Eagle Flight 3906 skids off the runway ..

[Аэрофлот Jr.]

Happened on January 5th at KSYR . Eagle Flight 3906 from KORD skids off icy runway while landing on RWY 10 , causing airport to close and other approaching and holding aircrafts to divert to alternate airports . 

It's edited by me, full coverage, no sliences and its definitely interesting . Check it out .

Thanks to our KSYR feeder, Peter for letting me know the time of this accident . =)   

[KSYR-pjr]

Excellent job, Rae.  That was a lot of work you did there and this has to be the longest (but certainly interesting) clip in the Audio clips forum.  At one point Dave had a limit of 5Mb but it seems he may have relaxed it in recent years.

My apologies to the community up front for the relatively poor reception of the ground-based aircraft and even tower on this night.  The feed is about 9 miles away from the airport but I am working on trying to relocate all or a part (ground and clearance) of the feed somewhere up at the airport.    Stay tuned over the next month for that.

The story behind this accident was that we had a line of moderate freezing rain move over the airport about 5 to 10 minutes before this aircraft landed.  In fact, the previous aircraft that had landed (I believe a regional jet, too) almost slid off a taxiway while taxiing off the main runway.  That pilot reported a braking action of "nill" and "poor" and tower was in the process of coordinating with the airport operations to investigate the ice problems on the taxiway when this aircraft landed.

The local media reported that the accident aircraft fishtailed a few times after touching down, then rolled all the way to the end of the 9,000 foot runway before going off.  An aircraft mechanic with whom I spoke today told me that the aircraft actually went off the runway at the end and took out an approach light bar.

Here is the runway diagram with the annotation:

[KSYR-pjr]

Just noticed in the clip that the previous aircraft that had complained of the nill braking on the taxiway ended up stopping on the taxiway and would not move until a tug came out to get him.  The tower controller talks about that aircraft as well as the one that went off the end of the runway, just for clarification.

[makonyy15]

Nice clip. Weird how none of the flights affected are showing in flight aware. Comair 1452 and Cactus 828 don't show up around the time frame of the incident on Monday, which are the 2 affected flights I kept hearing. Doesn't sound like a fun night though. I wouldn't be surprised if another incident like this occurs with the current system hitting the northeast tonight and tomorrow.

Edit: Did this accident occur Sunday or Monday? I see the reroutings showing up on 1/4, which would be Sunday. Just curious.

[Аэрофлот Jr.]

Nice clip. Weird how none of the flights affected are showing in flight aware. Comair 1452 and Cactus 828 don't show up around the time frame of the incident on Monday, which are the 2 affected flights I kept hearing. Doesn't sound like a fun night though. I wouldn't be surprised if another incident like this occurs with the current system hitting the northeast tonight and tomorrow.

Thank you , yea i checked the flight aware too but no luckk . Cactus was from KCLT and Comair was from KCVG as on flight aware .

[Аэрофлот Jr.]

Excellent job, Rae.  That was a lot of work you did there and this has to be the longest (but certainly interesting) clip in the Audio clips forum.  At one point Dave had a limit of 5Mb but it seems he may have relaxed it in recent years.

My apologies to the community up front for the relatively poor reception of the ground-based aircraft and even tower on this night.  The feed is about 9 miles away from the airport but I am working on trying to relocate all or a part (ground and clearance) of the feed somewhere up at the airport.    Stay tuned over the next month for that.

The story behind this accident was that we had a line of moderate freezing rain move over the airport about 5 to 10 minutes before this aircraft landed.  In fact, the previous aircraft that had landed (I believe a regional jet, too) almost slid off a taxiway while taxiing off the main runway.  That pilot reported a braking action of "nill" and "poor" and tower was in the process of coordinating with the airport operations to investigate the ice problems on the taxiway when this aircraft landed.

The local media reported that the accident aircraft fishtailed a few times after touching down, then rolled all the way to the end of the 9,000 foot runway before going off.  An aircraft mechanic with whom I spoke today told me that the aircraft actually went off the runway at the end and took out an approach light bar.

Here is the runway diagram with the annotation:

Thank you , i didnt include full conversation between previous aircraft landed and tower, i kinda 'focused' on EGF 3906 and other diversions .

Very nice Info/Explanation .

[darry2385]

great work getting this together!  saw it on the news the other morning (i live in a suburb of 'cuse) and was going through the archives trying to hear it all.

[Аэрофлот Jr.]

great work getting this together!  saw it on the news the other morning (i live in a suburb of 'cuse) and was going through the archives trying to hear it all.

Thank you , it was 0200z all the way to 0400z  (many silences in the achieves as you might noticed)

[davolijj]

Nice clip.  Man does that bring back memories of working the ramp in the frozen tundra.  At least those guys don't lose their sense of humor.

AWE1724: "...say the designator for Elmira again?"
SYR: "Just like it sounds sir, ULW."

[KSYR-pjr]

Edit: Did this accident occur Sunday or Monday? I see the reroutings showing up on 1/4, which would be Sunday. Just curious.

This happened around 9:40pm Eastern time Sunday, Jan 4, '09.  Rae was using Zulu time and date in his initial post. 

[otto_pilot]

is this accident just an issue of the airport not know the actual conditions of the runway? Also this is an accident that was weather related and the runway conditions were not properly assessed by the airport so are the pilots still at fault?(if that is the case.)  or could this be written off as not knowing how bad the actual conditions on the runway were and its just an accident were no single party is at fault.

[makonyy15]

Edit: Did this accident occur Sunday or Monday? I see the reroutings showing up on 1/4, which would be Sunday. Just curious.

This happened around 9:40pm Eastern time Sunday, Jan 4, '09.  Rae was using Zulu time and date in his initial post. 

Ahhh of course. Thanks for the clarification.

[KSYR-pjr]

is this accident just an issue of the airport not know the actual conditions of the runway?

My Reader's Digest response is this:  The weather conditions deteriorated too rapidly for the airport or the accident aircraft to respond.  The only clue ATC had was the poor braking PIREP on the taxiway by the previous arrival, who called it in just after landing.  However,  being that the Eagle Flight was right behind this aircraft on approach, there really wasn't enough time to for anyone to digest and respond to the information.

To expanded a bit more:  As far as I remember the freezing rain that night was somewhat of a surprise and not forecasted well enough in advance by weather services.  Hence the fact that the airport operations was somewhat caught off guard by the moderate icy precipitation when it did cover the airport (my speculation only).

I am not an airline transport pilot, but based on the many exchanges I have heard due to my flying out of this "winter" airport I have learned that airline transport pilots place a lot of importance and faith in runway braking PIREPS (pilot reports).  In fact, all (?) airlines have operation manuals that specifically regulate what braking report they can and cannot accept.  From what I have heard most airlines do not allow their pilots to land on a runway that was previously reported as poor or no braking, for obvious reasons.  

Another point is that these braking reports must be current, which I believe means they cannot be older than 20 minutes.  When the tower controller does not have a braking report more current than 20 minutes (at least at SYR) they request one from the airport operations, who then takes a vehicle down the runway to test the braking.

Again, in this particular case the weather deteriorated to moderate freezing rain within 5 to 10 minutes, which appeared to be not enough time for the airport to respond.  

[darry2385]

As far as I remember the freezing rain that night was somewhat of a surprise and not forecasted well enough in advance by weather services.  

that's what i recall as well.  came out of nowhere, rained hard for 5-15 minutes, then it stopped.  looked out my window and there was a sheen on my car. 

[aviator_06]

Nice Clip