Case Study

Week 6 Case Study

On 24 October 2004, a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed Sunday on its way to a NASCAR race, killing all 10 people aboard. The losses included the son, brother and two nieces of the owner of one of auto racing's most successful organizations. The eight passengers of the flight were Hendrick Motorsport, Inc. employees, with two crewmembers flying the aircraft. The accident occurred during a missed approach mishap to the Martinsville/Blue Ridge Airport (MTV). The Beech 200 Turboprop took off from Concord, N.C., and crashed in the Bull Mountain area 7 miles from Martinsville's Blue Ridge Regional Airport at about 12:30 p.m.

The accident aircraft was a Beechcraft King Air 200, which was manufactured in 1981. The aircraft accumulated 8,140 hours before the accident. The aircraft was properly maintained, with an inspection was completed on June 25, 2004. This inspection was only 61 flight hours before the accident. The aircraft was no equipped with an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), which is a system designed to alert pilots if their aircraft is in immediate danger of flying into the ground or an obstacle. The accident aircraft was equipped with a Bendix/King KLN 90B global positioning System (GPS), which was not certified for instrument flight because it contained an expired database.

The captain of the aircraft was 51 years of age. Hendrick Motorsports hired him on March 25, 2001. The captain had the correct rating to operate the Beech 200 Turboprop. The captain maintained a FAA first-class physical with a limitation for corrective lenses. The first officer also held a first-class physical, but with no limitations. Like the captain, the first officer was also adequately rated on the accident aircraft. The captain had logged 10,733 total flight hours including 210 in Beechcraft King Air and 8,600 hours in the Beechcraft 1900. The first officer had 2,090 hour of flight time including 1,200 hours in...