CVLP, vicinity San Juan Puerto Rico, 2012

CVLP, vicinity San Juan Puerto Rico, 2012

Summary

On 15 March 2012 the right hand engine exhaust of a Convair 440 freighter caught fire soon after take off and the fire was not contained within the exhaust duct or the zone covered by the fire protection system. After shutting this engine down, the subsequent Investigation concluded that the crew had lost control at low airspeed during an attempted turn back due to either an aerodynamic stall or a loss of directional control. It also found that the Operator involved was in serial violation of many regulatory requirements and that FAA oversight of the operation had been wholly ineffective.

Description

On 15 March 2012, a Convair 440 Freighter (N153JR) being operated by Fresh Air on a contract cargo flight from San Juan Puerto Rico to St Maarten in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) on a Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight plan declared an emergency shortly after take off and requested an immediate return to land on the reciprocal runway but crashed into terrain as the low level turn was being completed, destroying the aircraft and killing the two pilots.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board (USA) (NTSB). The accident aircraft was not equipped with an Flight Data Recorder (FDR) or Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) nor was it required to be, but radar recordings of the aircraft were available.

The aircraft was being operated under FAA Part 125 regulations which are applicable to 'private carriage' of goods or passengers by 'large' aircraft, defined as having either a seating capacity of 20 or more or a maximum payload capacity of 6000lb (2722kg) or more.

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