The crew attempted unsuccessfully to restart the engines, gliding down unpowered, while simultaneously trying to find an emergency landing field within range. Palm Beach, Fla.-based Southern Airways Express announced it is acquiring St. Louis, Mo.-based Air Choice One. Our second Flagship Fleet Saab 340 arrives in Hawaii this month, bringing more seats and higher reliability with cabin-class comfort Mokulele and Southern now offer nearly 160-peak day departures within the Hawaiian Islands Check out our new all-electric seagliders, coming to select Southern/Mokulele cities in 2026! In March 2014, Southern made its first acquisition, acquiring Executive Express and its FAA charter certificate, retaining all of its employees in the process. [18], The Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic TV series Mayday depicted the accident in a 2007 episode titled "Southern Storm". Southern recently announced its intention to bring 30-seat aircraft to its Hawaiian footprint to add to its 14 Caravans operating in the state. We welcome our pilots to fly VFR when applicable and try out our training flights. It operated scheduled air service between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, as well as charter flights and cargo service.On February 23, 2018, one of their B100 King Air's crashed at Abbotsford Airport (CYXX . Sample Page; ; Furthermore, the controllers could not have passed on information acquired by the NWS because the regional control centers did not receive the NWS weather reports, leaving them to rely primarily on pilot observations instead. Looks heavy, nothings going through that, said McKenzie. The crew attempted to pick out a path through the cells using their on-board weather radar display, but they were apparently misled by the radar's attenuation effect, and they proceeded toward what they believed was a low-intensity area, when in fact it was the peak convective activity point, attenuated by rain. Despite a valiant effort by the crew to land the plane on a portion of road near New Hope, Ga., the plane's wing clipped a gas station during landing, bursting into flames. The 10 Longest Narrow-body Flights in the World. Six seconds later, with its engines now fully dead, the plane lost all electrical power for a second time, and the black boxes again ceased recording. As the aircraft descended from its cruising altitude of 17,000 to 14,000 feet (5,200 to 4,300m) near Rome VOR, it apparently entered a thunderstorm cell and encountered a massive amount of rain and hail. Moments later, Keele went on the radio himself and said, Alright, listen, weve lost both engines, and I cant tell you the implications of this, uh, weve only got two engines and how far is Dobbins now?. Southern Airways Express celebrated the launch of their tickets sales with an informational presentation at the airport on Tuesday Feb. 14. The flight crew desperately attempted to land the DC-9 on GA 92 Spur, now known as GA 381, which runs through the community of New Hope. The air was muggy and the temperature nearing the 80-degree mark on the afternoon of April 4, 1977, as Captain Bill McKenzie and First Officer Lyman Keele piloted . [1]:1[4]. The data for the following story was gathered from the official accident report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board. Southern Airways Express insights Based on 38 survey responses Areas for improvement Fair pay for job Sense of belonging Trust in colleagues Very poor communication CSA - Customer Service Associate (Current Employee) - Chicago, IL - November 22, 2022 This company is very poor on communication and very disorganize They pay well but that's about it. In that minute, she said, I realized we didnt have anything to help him.. The pilots and 61 passengers were killed by impact forces and fire, but 20 of the passengers survived, as well as both flight attendants. The loss of thrust was caused by the ingestion of massive amounts of water and hail which in combination with thrust lever movement induced severe stalling in and major damage to the engine compressors. But when the controller reported that they still had 17 miles to go, while they were descending out of 4,600 feet, they had to finally face reality. It was because of this lack of clarity that both pilots made what would turn out to be a fatal mistake: what they interpreted to be a gap between the thunderclouds was actually a contour hole indicating the heaviest part of the storm. The wreckage of Southern Airways flight 242 lies scattered through a forest in New Hope, Georgia. Southern two forty two, say again! The NTSB believed that the pilots should have informed the flight attendants and crew to cushion themselves with blankets, coats, and pillows, and not remove their shoes. And then, with one last crunch and the tinkle of glass, it was over. As the plane descended, it broke out of the storm but now had no engine power. However, investigators duly noted that severe thunderstorms contain many dangers both known and unknown, which is why one of the cardinal rules of flight is to never fly into them in the first place. Both pilots attempted to use their in-flight weather radar to find a region of clear air. The Courier Express mobile app brings you the latest local breaking news, updates, and more. She ventured into the living room to investigate. Advertising Notice According to the order issued by the DOT, the contract will last four years beginning on Dec. 1, 2022, until Nov. 30, 2026. The warm spring weather had lured all three Burkhalter boys outside. Sharad Ranabhat February 25, 2023. Captain McKenzie picked up the intercom to inform the flight attendants about the emergency, but he managed only to say, Sandy before Keele interrupted him with even more dire news: My god, he said, the other engines going too, damn!. But they were over a heavily forested area, and their options were limited. Southern Airways Flight 242. accident report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board. The hailstones were strong enough to break the windshield and dent the inlet rings on both engines. Neither history nor her own life experiences had prepared Sadie for the role that chance chose for her: to be the first person encountered by more than a dozen traumatized and badly burned passengers fleeing the burning wreckage of what was the worst plane crash in the history of Georgia. Hand flying multiple high speed approaches 120 to 140 KTS into class B & C busy airline airports. Captain William McKenzie ,54, and First Officer Lyman Keele Jr ,34,. landed the plane, and neither pilot survived the accident. To air traffic control, McKenzie uttered one final transmission: Were putting it on the highway, were down to nothing., Oh Christ, Bill, I hope we can do it, said Keele. This type of emergency (permanent loss of thrust to both engines) had never occurred in the history of commercial, turbo-jet aircraft. Right there, is that straight? Keele asked. The best chance for a (reasonably) safe landing would have been at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Georgia,[1]:33 but why the crew did not attempt it is unclear due to the two-minute gap in CVR data. Rapid upward motion and cold air aloft combined with ample surface warmth and moisture created an environment ripe for severe thunderstorms. Your mind focuses on some trivial things. He was right there was no turning back now. Meanwhile, flight attendant Sandy Ward was seated in the back of the plane and reported it "bouncing up and down" several times during impact and that fire spread through the cabin. In her book, she tells the story of the crash and the history of critical incident stress management's entry into the aviation industry. Barefoot, bewildered passengers emerged from the cloud of smoke and came stumbling toward the Burkhalters house. This scoop factor means that the ratio of water to air entering an engine operating at low power can be up to three times greater than the nominal water-to-air ratio outside the plane. But there was in fact plenty to be alarmed about. By now, the fire had died down and she was able to exit through the broken fuselage. The reliability of jet engines had proved so high in service that the DC-9s emergency handbooks didnt even include a procedure for a dual engine failure. Before the aircraft turned toward Dobbins, the closest airport was another general-aviation airport, Cornelius Moore Airport (now Polk County Airport Cornelius Moore Field), but the air traffic controllers did not know about it (it was just outside their area of responsibility and not shown on their screens), and it was not considered. There is no other word to describe the view of the pieces of the plane burning, trees burning, passengers running in every direction. Ive got it, Ill hand fly it! said Keele. A Fatal Mistake: The 1977 Crash of Southern Airways 242. On that April day, at 3:54 p.m., a Southern Airways DC-9-31 carrying 81 passengers and four crewmembers took off under cloudy skies and in heavy rain from Huntsville International Airport, near Huntsville, Alabama, on its way to Atlanta. As a result, the pressure ratio between the low and high pressure compressors increased, moving close to the point at which a surge would occur. I heard the baby [Eddie] saying, Monster, mommy, monster, she said. Once flight 242 was underway, the pilots received minimal additional weather information from air traffic control. Southern Airways Express - Chicago O'Hare Airport (ORD) Terminal Arrivals Terminal: Southern Airways Express does not have a defined terminal at O'Hare Airport. Pets are welcome to travel in the cabin on select flights. [11][12] The site is 11 miles (18km) from Cartersville Airport and 15.5 miles (25km) from Dobbins AFB. On March 7, 2016, Southern announced its second acquisition, Fort Lauderdale-based Sun Air Express. A year later, Southern Airways was awarded Seaport's former routes to Arkansas' Boone County Airport, Hot Springs Memorial Field Airport, and South Arkansas Regional Airport, and enplanements have grown markedly at all three cities in the years since. Southern Airways Express ORD Airport- Customer Service Agent Chicago, IL 30d+ $33K-$42K Per Year (Glassdoor est.) A worker searches through the wreckage of a Southern Airways DC-9 that crashed on a highway in New Hope, Ga., on April 4, 1977, killing 63 people aboard and nine on the ground. Well take a vector to that, yes, well have to go there, said Keele. I still didnt know what it was. Our eyes became huge, she said, and we just looked at each other, staring. Sun Air flew multiple EAS routes in the mid-Atlantic region, immediately strengthening Southern's presence in the federal program. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission. [1]:31 The hail was so intense that it broke the aircraft's windshield, and because of the ingestion of both water and hail, both Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7A engines were damaged and underwent flameout.[5][2]. Therefore, although Air Dacentaria is slightly more expensive, I will choose it over Southern Airways for my flight from Pederton to Dacenta. [12], The Southern Airways Express Saab 340s started operating in Hawai'i in July 2022, with service linking Honolulu to Lana'i and Moloka'i. And although the crew perhaps should have been suspicious of this gap, considering their earlier remarks, investigators speculated that the pilots minimal rest and lack of food may have had a negative effect on their judgment. On the 4th of April 1977, a brief flight from Huntsville, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia took a terrifying turn when the DC-9 encountered a powerful thunderstorm at 17,000 feet. I just saw that thin blue line, and my mind registered that it was a plane. And not a small private plane, but a jetliner. The episode featured interviews with witnesses and accident investigators, and a dramatization of the accident. The DC-9s captain, William Wade McKenzie, had been killed upon impact; the first officer, Lyman W. Keele Jr., who had been flying the plane, died while being airlifted to Kennestone Regional Medical Center in Marietta, Georgia. [14], See List of Southern Airways Express destinations, In early 2020, Southern Airways became the exclusive codeshare partner for Tailwind Air Service. For those who fly there, life is a constant battle to stay on top of the latest weather developments, as thunderstorms appear and disappear in a matter of minutes, bringing powerful winds and heavy rain to localized areas with little warning. If the differences in temperature and pressure between the low pressure compressor and the high pressure compressor become too great, air will abruptly shoot forward from the high pressure zone into the low pressure zone, against the normal direction of flow. The lunch hour had come and gone, but there was no time to eat: their turnaround time in Huntsville would be just ten minutes. Ward tried to assist passengers in escaping until an explosion forced her to run for cover. Privacy Statement Southern markets and sells the flights under its 9X code on both its reservation system and the Global Distribution Systems. The storms on their weather radar continued to intensify. The NTSB's final report lists a total of 70 fatalities from the crash of Flight 242, including 2 flight crew, 60 passengers, and 7 persons on the ground. She said we needed to come into the house, that there was gonna be some bad weather coming in, that we needed to prepare for that. None of the children protested, he said, and Tony promptly left to go back home. Desperately searching for a place to land their crippled airliner, the pilots set their sights on what seemed to be their last hope for salvation: State Highway 92 in New Hope, Georgia. Nearby, four passengers from the front of the plane had survived despite being ejected during the breakup sequence; further back, another two escaped from just in front of the wings, suffering severe burns in the process. Unknown to anyone on board, the DC-9s engines were on the verge of failure. The best way to do that was to get to a telephone and summon help. The question then was whether disaster could still have been avoided. [7] Early destinations included University-Oxford Airport, Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport, New Orleans Lakefront Airport, and Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. Which way do we go, cross here or go out I dont know how we get through here, Bill! said First Officer Keele. (NTSB) On the 4th of April 1977, a brief flight from Huntsville, Alabama to Atlanta, Georgia. Moments later, the plane entered heavy turbulence. Southern replaces SkyWest Airlines after the U.S. Department of Transportation approved its proposal for the essential air services flights. The Hawaii-based commuter airline also flew the Cessna Caravan, making it a logical target for Southern. The argument says that Southern Airways has a far worse safety record that Air Dacentaria. _________________________________________________________________. Nine people on the ground were also killed, including a family of seven. Her first thought was to get away from the plane, which she feared was about to explode. By the time flight 242 departed, rain was falling over Huntsville Jetport, and there was no way to visually identify any storms that might lie between Huntsville and Atlanta. | None could have imagined that their community was seconds away from becoming a disaster zone, as the crippled DC-9, in near-complete silence, bore down upon them from out of a bright spring sky. ", "Southern Airways Express Tries to Replace Big Airlines One Small Mississippi Airport at a Time", "Southern Airways extends service in New Bedford, plans to base New England fleet at airport", "Southern Airways Announces Strategic Minority Investment By SkyWest, New Alliance Between the Companies", "Southern Airways to Bring Larger Turboprop Aircraft to Molokai and Lnai | Maui Now", "News for Airlines, Airports and the Aviation Industry | CAPA", "Interview: The Southern Airways Express Saab340 Unveiled AirlineGeeks.com", "Multi-Aero Inc. d/b/a Air Choice One to be Acquired by Southern Airways Corporation", "Tailwind Air Service to launch commuter ops in New York", "American Airlines interline with Southern Airways could benefit El Dorado", "Southern Airways Express FAA Aircraft Registration", "Southern Airways Express Purchases 20 REGENT Seagliders for their U.S. East Coast Operations in $250M Deal", List of defunct airlines of the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Southern_Airways_Express&oldid=1141345831, Companies based in Palm Beach County, Florida, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 16:10. The DC-9 broke into several large pieces; the cockpit had separated mostly intact and came to rest upside-down. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Transportation Safety Board. Meanwhile, the pilots attempted to speed through the engine restart checklist. Little owned a Golden Eagle 421 which was never used by the airline, although his private pilot, Scott Honnoll, did transition to the airline and advanced to the role of assistant chief pilot before returning to general aviation in November 2015. She found herself hanging upside-down while still strapped into her seat, unbuckled the seatbelt, and jumped from an opening in the fuselage when the main cabin door turned out to be jammed and inoperable. Within two minutes after takeoff, it started picking up a solid line of thunderstorms a few miles ahead, stretching in a long line across northwestern Georgia. 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