USAir5050

3 Pages 849 Words

On September 20, 1989, a day where instrument conditions prevailed, USAir flight 5050 ran off of a wet runway at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport after an aborted takeoff on its way to Charlotte, North Carolina. The flight’s purpose was to replace the cancelled flight 1846. Upon initiating the takeoff roll on runway 31, the airplane started to yaw to the left. The pilot flying at the time was the First Officer. During the takeoff roll the flight crew heard a loud bang and a rumbling noise followed. At this time the Captain took the controls from the First Officer and initiated an aborted takeoff. The Boeing 737-400 was unable to stop before reaching the end of the runway. This accident left two passengers dead, three passengers with serious injuries, and twelve passengers and six crew members with minor injuries.
Due to the prevailing weather conditions at the time of departure, many flights were delayed or cancelled for several hours. The Captain had reported to the USAir operations and was expecting to fly from LaGuardia to Norfolk, Virginia as USAir flight 1846. The airline dispatcher decided to cancel the leg to Norfolk, and informed the Captain that the new route was to fly the aircraft without any passengers to Charlotte. Within minutes the dispatcher then informed the Captain that the flight would not be flown empty, but instead would carry passengers to Charlotte as USAir 5050. The Captain was not pleased with this abrupt change because the extra delays would cause both he and the First Officer to exceed crew duty time limitations before reaching their destination.
While on the ground at the gate, the Captain decided to go talk to USAir’s ground movement control to check on how decisions on passengers and flights were made. During this time, the First officer was preparing for the flight inside of the cockpit. A Captain from Pan American Airways, who was traveling as a non-revenue passenger entered the ...