Crash of a Douglas DC-9-31 in Erie

During arrival, the crew of USAir flight 499 landed on runway 24, which was covered with snow. Reportedly, while landing, the aircraft touched down approximately 1,800 to 2,000 feet beyond the displaced threshold. Altho armed, the spoilers did not autodeploy, so the captain operated them manually. He lowered the aircraft's nose, actuated reverse thrust and applied brakes. The brakes were not effective. Subsequently, the aircraft continued off the end of the runway, ran over a runway end id light, struck a fence and came to rest straddling a road. The crew had planned on making an ILS approach to runway 06, but the RVR was only 2,800 feet and a minimum RVR of 4 000 feet was requested for that runway. The crew elected to land on runway 24, since 1/2 mile visibility was sufficient for that runway. However, the approach was made with a qtrg tailwind and approximately 10 knots above Vref. Tailwind landings were not authorized on runway 24 in wet/slippery conditions. The runway braking action was reported as fair-to-poor. The pilot's handbook cautioned the crew to monitor the spoilers when landing on slippery runways, since the spoilers auto-deploy only with wheel spin-up or when the nose wheel is on the ground. A passenger was slightly injured while 22 other occupants were uninjured.