United Express jet lands between runway and taxiway, destroying plane

Bet you've never seen landing gear like that before...

On March 4, 2019, at 1129 EST, CommutAir flight 4933, an Embraer EMB-145XR, N14171, d.b.a. United Express, landed between Runway 1 and Taxiway A in moderate snow at Northern Maine Regional Airport, Presque Isle, Maine. This was the second approach to Runway 1 after having conducted a missed approach during the first approach. Radar track data show that the airplane was aligned right of the runway during both approaches. Of the 31 passengers and crew onboard, two passengers and one crew member received minor injuries. The airplane was substantially damaged. The flight was operating as a regularly scheduled Part 121 domestic passenger flight from Newark International Airport to PQI.

The first ILS approach to Runway 1 appeared to be proceeding normally until the first officer - the pilot flying - transitioned from instrument references inside the flight deck to outside references. During a post-accident interview, the first officer stated that he expected to see the runway at that time but instead saw "white on white" and a structure with an antenna that was part of the runway environment but not the runway itself. The captain - the pilot monitoring - stated that she saw a tower and called for a go-around. Both flight crew members were most likely seeing the automated weather observing system wind sensor pole, which was located about 325' to the right of the Runway 1 centerline and about 870' beyond the runway threshold, and the damage to the lightning arrester at the top of the wind sensor pole was likely due to contact with the accident airplane as it flew over the pole. According to the CVR, after the go-around, the first officer asked the captain if she saw the runway lights during the approach. The captain responded that she saw the lights but that "it's really white down there that's the problem."

Airport personnel stated that snow plowing operations on the runway had finished about 10 minutes before the first approach. The CVR recorded the flight crew's discussion about turning on the pilot-controlled runway lights and sounds similar to microphone clicks before and after the discussion. However, the PQI maintenance foreman stated that, after the first approach, the runway lights were not on.

The captain thought that the airplane had drifted off course when the first officer transitioned from flight instruments to the outside, so she instructed the first officer to remain on the instruments during the second approach until the decision altitude (200' agl). The second approach proceeded normally with no problems capturing or maintaining the localizer and glideslope. During this approach, the captain asked airport maintenance personnel to ensure that the runway lighting was on, and the PQI maintenance foreman replied that the lights were on "bright." Thus, the flight crew had a means to identify the runway surface even with the reported snow cover at the time.

As the airplane approached the decision altitude, the captain instructed the first officer to disconnect the autopilot, which he did. About nine seconds later, the airplane reached the decision altitude, and the captain called, "runway in sight twelve o'clock." This callout was followed by the first officer's statement, 'I'm stayin' on the flight director 'cause I don't see it yet." A few seconds later, while the airplane was below 100' AGL, the captain and the first officer expressed confusion, stating "what the ****" and "I don't know what I'm seein'," respectively, but neither called for a go-around.

The airplane subsequently impacted the snow-covered grassy area between Runway 1 and a parallel taxiway. During a post-accident interview, the FO stated that, when he transitioned from flight instruments to the outside during the second approach, he again saw "white on white" as well as blowing snow and that the airplane touched down before he could determine what he was seeing. The maintenance foreman estimated that, at the time of the accident, the runway had about 1/8 inch of snow with about 20% to 25% of the runway visible.

The NTSB determined the probable causes of this accident to be the flight crew's decision, due to confirmation bias, to continue the descent below the decision altitude when the runway had not been positively identified. Contributing to the accident were the first officer's fatigue, which exacerbated his confirmation bias, and the failure of CommutAir pilots who had observed the localizer misalignment to report it to the company and air traffic before the accident.

There is much more to the story, and it is presented in the video, however there is a character limit to video descriptions. See pinned comment.

Extensive investigative information regarding this accident is linked in the pinned comment. I particularly recommend the Human Factors and Operational Factors factual reports.

00:00 Accident footage
01:45 Post-accident photos
02:18 Accident report

Видео United Express jet lands between runway and taxiway, destroying plane канала What You Haven't Seen