Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529 was a flight between Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport which crashed near Carrollton, Georgia on August 21, 1995, killing 10 of the 29 people onboard. August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (IATA: ATL, ICAO: KATL) is located in the Atlanta, Georgia, USA metropolitan area, and is the busiest airport in the world, with Chicagos OHare as a rival. ... Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport (IATA: GPT, ICAO: KGPT) is a public airport located in northern Gulfport, Mississippi near Biloxi, Mississippi. ... Carrollton is a city in Carroll County, Georgia, United States. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Aircraft

The plane was an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, with tail number N256AS. It had been delivered to Atlantic Southeast Airlines on March 3, 1989. Before the fatal flight the plane had flown 18,171 flights. The Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia is a twin-turboprop commuter airliner, produced by Embraer. ... An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that can be used to identify any aircraft. ... Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) (IATA: EV, ICAO: ASQ, and Callsign: Acey) is an airline based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA flying to over 150 destinations as a Delta Connection carrier. ... March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (63rd in leap years). ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

History

Flight 529 left the ramp area at Atlanta at 12:10, and took off at 12:23. At 12:43:25 and climbing through 18,100 feet, a thud was heard which the co-pilot described as sounding like a baseball bat striking an aluminum trash can. One of the blades of the propeller on the left engine had failed and the entire assembly had become dislodged, deforming the engine nacelle and distorting the wing's profile. A Ryanair Boeing 737 takes off from Bristol International Airport, England Take off is the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground (taxiing) to flying in the air (see flight), usually from a runway. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Although the Brasilia is designed to fly with one engine simply malfunctioning, the distortion of the engine resulted in excessive drag and loss of lift on the left side of the aircraft, causing it to rapidly lose altitude. An object falling through a gas or liquid experiences a force in direction opposite to its motion. ... Lift consists of the sum of all the fluid dynamic forces on a body perpendicular to the direction of the external flow approaching that body. ...

Captain Ed Gannaway and co-pilot Matt Warmerdam initially tried to return to Atlanta for an emergency landing, but the rapid descent resulted in them being diverted to West Georgia Regional Airport. Unfortunately, the airplane was unable to stay in the air that long and the pilots began searching for an open space to make a crash landing on the plane's belly. At 12:52:45 the airplane struck the tops of the trees and crashed into a field near Carrollton.

Casualties

In a fire which started about one minute after impact Captain Gannaway, who had been knocked unconscious in the crash landing, was killed. Several passengers were seriously burned and seven died within 30 days of the crash, bringing the official death toll to nine. A tenth passenger died four months after the crash from the burn injuries. None of the passengers or crew escaped uninjured, although eight had only minor injuries. A large bonfire. ...

Cause

The crash was determined to be caused by the failure of the propeller due to undiscovered metal fatigue resulting from corrosion. There had been at least two previous failures of the same propellers, but those aircraft had been able to land safely. The propellers had been recalled and serviced at a Hamilton Standard facility, but the inspection had been incomplete and the refurbishing work ineffective. Metal Fatigue is a 1999 real-time strategy and mecha computer game developed by Zono, Inc and released by Psygnosis. ...

The NTSB criticized Hamilton Standard, who had maintained the props, for "inadequate and ineffective corporate inspection and repair techniques, training, documentation and communication", and both Hamilton and the FAA for "failure to require recurrent on-wing ultrasonic inspections for the affected propellers". The overcast skies and low cloud ceiling at the crash site also contributed to the severity of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ... Hamilton Standard, a famous aircraft propeller part supplier, was founded in 1910 by Thomas F. Hamilton. ... FAA may refer to: Federal Aviation Administration in the United States Fleet Air Arm in the UK Royal Navy Fuerza Aérea Argentina in Argentina This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Ultrasound is sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, approximately 20 kilohertz. ...

Books and documentaries

The disaster was subject of the Wounded Bird(One-Wing Flight by National Geographic) episode of the Air Crash Investigation documentary series. A book on the disaster, Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: The Tragedy & Triumph of ASA Flight 529 by Gary Pomerantz was written in 2001. Air Crash Investigation is a science television program on National Geographic Channel. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

External links

• Aviation-safety.net page on the disaster
• NTSB report (PDF file)
• Article describing the crash and aftermath