According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) the fatal plane crash near the Truckee-Tahoe Airport in 2021 was the result of "improper crew resource management."
On July 26, 2021, the Bombardier Challenger 605 business jet was flying from Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, to the Truckee-Tahoe airport in California when it crashed during a circling approach to land. In the course of these maneuvers, the airplane exceeded the critical angle of attack and entered an asymmetric aerodynamic stall, resulting in a rapid left roll and impact with the ground.
In the final five seconds of the flight, the first officer asked for control of the airplane three times, but the captain never did so.
Investigators said that it's likely that the first officer tried to improperly take control of the aircraft without the captain's permission.
The audio recording from the jet's cockpit voice recorder revealed that both the captain and first officer made critical mistakes during the final minutes of the flight.
After being cleared to the Truckee-Tahoe Airport by air traffic control for Runway 20, the crew requested and was cleared for a circling approach to land on Runway 11, the longer of the two runways.
The crew failed, however, to brief for the new approach, as the descent checklist required.
As the airplane began its final turn towards Runway 11, it was too close and too fast to align with the runway without overshooting the centerline, and too high to make a normal descent to a landing.
Instead of calling for a go-around, as company procedures required, the flight crew elected to continue across the centerline and then turn back towards it, deploying spoilers to increase the rate of descent.
Six victims were identified in this crash.
The complete 26-page report is available on CAROL and below:
Download PDFThe accident docket, which includes the cockpit voice recorder transcript and other factual materials, is available on the NTSB Docket Management System.
(The National Transportation Safety Board assisted with this report.)
