Elmira-Corning

The new owner/co-pilot of the 50-year-old airplane and another pilot, who was typed rated in the airplane, departed on a 1,700 mile ferry flight. After the first 250 mile leg, the airplane was landed at another airport with a right engine problem. The owner replaced the right engine and continued the ferry flight. Twenty minutes into the second flight, the replacement right engine lost power. The owner stated that they applied maximum power to the left engine, were unable to feather the right propeller, and performed a forced landing to a field. However, the airplane collided with trees before reaching the field, then burned after impact. Investigation revealed that during the past 5 years, the airplane had neither flown nor had an annual inspection, except for 3 recent maintenance flights, totaling 1.5 Hours. The right propeller blades had chordwise scratches. The left propeller blades had no chordwise scratches. Examination of the wreckage revealed three propeller strikes in the ground, near the right engine ground scar, and no propeller strikes in the ground, near the left engine ground scar. The right engine mixture was locked in the auto-cruise position, while the left was locked in the emergency position. Airplane charts listed the single-engine rate of climb with a feathered propeller to be 350 feet per minute, and 10 feet per minute with a windmilling propeller.

At the time of the accident, gusty winds were forecast for the surface to higher altitudes. The copilot was flying and configured the airplane about four miles out for landing on runway 24. The flightcrew received progressive wind information during the approach; the last report was wind at 310° and 25 knots. The approach speed was v ref + 10. According to the flightcrew, during the landing flare a wind gust occurred, and the airplane lifted in a nose down attitude. The gust stopped and then the airplane descended to the runway and landed hard. The examination of the airplane revealed the fuselage cracked near where the wings were attached and the aft fuselage was bent down about 7°. Two passengers were seriously injured.

The crew was approaching East Hampton Airport and encountered marginal weather conditions with limited visibility to 3/4 of mile due to the night and ground fog. While in a missed approach configuration, the crew lost control of the airplane that stalled and crashed few miles from the airfield. Both occupants were injured and the aircraft was destroyed.

Shortly after takeoff from Teterboro Airport, while in initial climb, the pilot lost control of the airplane that stalled and crashed in a huge explosion near the runway end. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot, sole on board, was killed.

The aircraft departed Elmira-Corning Airport at 1439LT on a schedule flight to Washington-National Airport, carrying 30 passengers and a crew of four. After takeoff, the crew was cleared to climb to FL160 when the airplane went into a nose-down attitude, plunged into the earth and crashed in a huge explosion in a wooded area located one mile east of Blossburg, Pennsylvania. The aircraft disintegrated on impact and none of the 34 occupants survived the crash.

The crew departed Huntington on a training mission to Newark. En route, the weather conditions deteriorated, the crew requested ATC assistance and was eventually rerouted to Elmira-Corning Airport, NY. Twice, the crew was forced to abandon the approach due to poor visibility and made a go around. During the third attempt to land, the twin engine aircraft was too low and hit a mountain located some 11 km west of the airport. All six occupants were killed.