Boeing 717-200 N957AT

Summary

On 27 March 2003 at about 03:39 local time, a Boeing 717-200 registered N957AT, operated by Air Tran Airways, was involved in an accident near Flushing, New York, United States. 83 people were on board and one was seriously injured, 22 had minor injuries. The aircraft was slightly damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

27 March 2003 at 03:39

Classification

Accident

Location

Flushing, New York, United States

Nearest airport

LaGuardia Airport (LGA)

Coordinates

40.7778, -73.8756

Aircraft

Boeing 717-200

Registration

N957AT

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Air Tran Airways

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Atlanta → Flushing

Aircraft damage

Minor

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

NYC03FA067

1 person was seriously injured.

A failure of the left power control distribution unit (PCDU).

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The Boeing 717 was on final approach when the display units (DUs) in the cockpit blanked, and the cockpit darkened. In addition smoke was smelled in the cockpit, and cabin. In the cabin, the emergency light illuminated for a few minutes, and then all lights extinguished and the cabin was dark. The landing gear was lowered. When the wing flaps were positioned to 40 degrees, a landing gear aural warning commenced and continued until power was removed after landing. The captain reported when the event initiated, he directed his vision outside the cockpit where it remained until after landing. The co-pilot reported that he also directed his vision outside of the cockpit in the final 20 seconds of approach. Neither pilot made use of the standby instruments or used a flashlight to check instruments. The captain commanded an emergency evacuation after he cleared the runway and stopped. When interviewed, the flight attendants reported that during the emergency evacuation, they did not check conditions outside of their doors prior to opening them. In addition, cabin emergency lighting was not turned on by the flight attendants, and the flight attendant at the tail cone station was unable to deploy her slide. Examination of the airplane revealed the left power control distribution unit (PCDU) had failed. The left DC bus was also lost and the ability to power the left DC bus from other sources was also lost. The failure of the PCDU was not instantaneous and it tried to recycle several times. Each time the PCDU recycled, it also reset the display of new data on the remaining DUs. This caused an extended blank display followed by eventual reset of data. The pre-programmed response to the loss of the left DC bus was the loss of two DUs, one on each side of the cockpit.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.