Description

On 16 December 2004 a Shorts SD3-60 being operated by Air Cargo Carriers on a cargo flight from Toledo OH USA to Oshawa ON Canada rejected an attempt to land at night on a runway contaminated with snow after poor deceleration but failed to transition to a climb and subsequently impacted rising terrain and trees beyond the end of the runway. The aircraft was substantially damaged and both pilots sustained serious injuries but there was no post-crash fire.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Canadian TSB. It was noted that the aircraft had not been fitted with a Flight Data Recorder (FDR) or Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and neither was required to be fitted under the prevailing regulations. There was provision for the generation of METARs for Oshawa but TWR ATC had advised, approximately 11 minutes before the landing, that there was a layer of cloud at about 100 feet agl and surface visibility was about 800 metres. The crew had subsequently had requested a Runway Condition Report (RCR) and just over two minutes before landing, TWR stated the RCR had just been completed and gave the runway as “snow-covered and slippery underneath” and gave landing clearance.