NationMaster - Encyclopedia: American Eagle Flight 4184

American Eagle Flight 4184 was a regional airline flight that crashed after flying into known icing conditions on October 31, 1994. Control was lost and all aboard were killed. American Eagle Airlines is an airline based in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. It is a regional airline partner of American Airlines (both wholly owned by AMR Corporation), operating over 1,600 flights a day, serving 140 cities across the USA, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. ... Regional airlines are a type of airline service that is intended to feed a larger airline or larger aircraft. ... In aviation, icing conditions are those atmospheric conditions that can lead to the formation of water ice on the surfaces of the aircraft, or as carburetor icing within the engine. ... October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 61 days remaining. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ...

History

The aircraft, N401AM, was an ATR 72-212 operated by Simmons Airlines on behalf of American Eagle (a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation). The flight was en route from Indianapolis International Airport, Indiana to O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. Bad weather in Chicago caused delays, prompting air traffic control to hold Flight 4184 over the nearby LUCIT intersection at 10,000 ft. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1476x1054, 152 KB) (APOLOGIES FOR THE WRONG REGISTRATION IN THE FILENAME) ATR 72 of Aer Arann (EI-REE) taking off from Bristol International Airport, Bristol, England. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1476x1054, 152 KB) (APOLOGIES FOR THE WRONG REGISTRATION IN THE FILENAME) ATR 72 of Aer Arann (EI-REE) taking off from Bristol International Airport, Bristol, England. ... An Airbus A380, currently the worlds largest passenger airliner An aircraft is any vehicle or craft capable of atmospheric flight. ... The ATR 72 is a twin-turboprop short-haul regional airliner built in France by the ATR company (Avions de Transport gional). ... AMR Corporation NYSE: AMR is a Fort Worth, Texas-based holding company created in 1982 as part of a reorganization of American Airlines. ... Midfield Terminal Project Midfield Terminal Rendering Indianapolis International Airport (IATA: IND, ICAO: KIND) is an airport located in Indianapolis, Indiana. ... Official language(s) English Capital Indianapolis Largest city Indianapolis Area Ranked 38th - Total 36,418 sq mi (94,321 kmÂ²) - Width 140 miles (225 km) - Length 270 miles (435 km) - % water 1. ... ORD redirects here. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 606. ... Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCTs) at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport (Netherlands) Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. ... A hold is an aeronautical maneuver that keeps an aircraft in a predetermined safe area while waiting for a clearance, weather, traffic, or any other delays. ...

While holding, they encountered freezing rain — a dangerous icing condition where supercooled droplets rapidly cause intense ice buildup. Soon after, they were cleared to descend to 8,000 ft. During this descent the aircraft experienced an uncommanded roll excursion, which disengaged the autopilot. Flight recorder data showed that it subsequently went through at least one full roll, and the crew was unable to regain control of the rapidly descending aircraft. Less than two minutes later, contact was lost as the plane impacted a soybean field near Roselawn, Indiana, killing all 64 passengers and 4 crew on board. A shrub coated by glaze after a night of freezing rain. ... Supercooling is the process of chilling a liquid below its freezing point, without its becoming solid. ... Flight dynamics is the study of orientation of air and space vehicles and how to control the critical flight parameters, typically named pitch, roll and yaw. ... An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. ... In aircraft, the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) are used to record aircraft and pilot behavior in order to analyze accidents, and are usually called black boxes by the news media. ... Binomial name Glycine max (L.) Merr. ... Roselawn is a census-designated place located in Newton County, Indiana. ...

Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated that the probable cause of this crash was the flight into known icing conditions, with the aircraft being operated outside its "icing certification envelope". While the ATR's deicing boots were able to remove ice along the leading edge, it rapidly re-formed behind the boots as runback ice, where it could not be removed. This separated the airflow from the wing's surface and made the aileron control inadequate or non-existent. The ATR family of aircraft has had a history of known and reported control problems in icing conditions. For that reason, the NTSB also mentioned as contributing factors the "inadequate response" on part of the manufacturer and the French DGAC and United States' Federal Aviation Administration aviation authorities to these reports. Image File history File links Eagle_4184_crashsite. ... Image File history File links Eagle_4184_crashsite. ... The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government independent organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ... A deicing boot is a device installed on aircraft surfaces to permit a mechanical deicing in flight. ... For the band with a similar name, see The Ailerons Ailerons are hinged control surfaces attached to the trailing edge of the wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. ... FAA redirects here. ...

Aftermath

In the years following this accident, AMR Corporation stopped using its American Eagle ATRs out of their northern hubs and moved them to their southern and Caribbean hubs in Dallas, Texas; Miami, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico to alleviate potential icing problems in the future. Other U.S. ATR operators, particularly the SkyWest, Inc. subsidiary and Delta Connection operator Atlantic Southeast Airlines, continue to operate ATR-72 aircraft in areas where icing conditions are not common. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (IATA: DFW, ICAO: KDFW) is located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, and is the busiest airport in Texas. ... Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA, ICAO: KMIA), is a major airport located in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida between the cities of Miami, Hialeah, Doral, and Miami Springs, the village of Virginia Gardens, and the unincorporated community of Fountainbleau. ... Luis MuÃ±oz MarÃn International Airport (IATA: SJU, ICAO: TJSJ) is a public airport located in Carolina, 3 miles (5 km) southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. ... SkyWest, Inc. ... Delta Connection is the name under which seven regional airlines operate short and medium haul routes for mainline carrier, Delta Air Lines. ... Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) (IATA: EV, ICAO: ASQ, and Callsign: Acey) [1] is an airline based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA flying to over 150 destinations as a Delta Connection carrier. ...

ATR issued modifications in its aircraft introducing extended de-icer boots and creating new procedures when encountering icing conditions. However, further incidents seem to indicate that there is no definitive solution for this problem in ATR aircraft.

Dramatization

This crash was featured on the Discovery Channel program The New Detectives. Discovery Channel is a cable and satellite TV channel distributed by Discovery Communications that provides non-fiction programming focused on science, history and nature. ...

External links

Categories: Aviation accidents and incidents in 1994 | 1994 in the United States | Accidents and incidents on commercial airliners in the United States | Airliner crashes caused by ice | 1994 meteorology | History of Indiana | American Airlines flights Portable Document Format (PDF), sometimes mistaken for Printable Document Format, is an open file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 and is now being prepared for submission as an ISO standard[1]. It is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a device independent and resolution independent fixed-layout... A mebibyte (a contraction of mega binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated MiB. 1 MiB = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes = 1,024 kibibytes The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB), which can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 106... Portable Document Format (PDF), sometimes mistaken for Printable Document Format, is an open file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 and is now being prepared for submission as an ISO standard[1]. It is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a device independent and resolution independent fixed-layout... A mebibyte (a contraction of mega binary byte) is a unit of information or computer storage, abbreviated MiB. 1 MiB = 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes = 1,024 kibibytes The mebibyte is closely related to the megabyte (MB), which can either be a synonym for mebibyte, or refer to 106...

Contents

Cause

Aftermath

Dramatization

External links