UPS Airlines Flight 1354 was a scheduled cargo flight from
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
, Kentucky, to
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, Alabama. On August 14, 2013, the
Airbus A300
The Airbus A300 is a wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Airbus.
In September 1967, aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a large airliner.
West G ...
flying the route crashed and burst into flames short of the runway on approach to
Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport
Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport , formerly Birmingham Municipal Airport and later Birmingham International Airport, is a civil-military airport serving Birmingham, Alabama. The airport also provides scheduled airline service fo ...
.
Both pilots were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. They were the only people aboard the aircraft. It was the second fatal air crash for UPS Airlines.
Aircraft and crew
![UPS Airlines A300 N155UP](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/UPS_Airlines_A300_N155UP.jpg)
The aircraft involved in the accident was a 10-year-old Airbus A300F4-622R, registered as N155UP. It was built in 2003; UPS took delivery of it in February 2004. It was powered by
Pratt & Whitney PW4000
The Pratt & Whitney PW4000 is a family of dual-spool, axial-flow, high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines produced by Pratt & Whitney as the successor to the JT9D.
It was first run in April 1984, was FAA certified in July 1986, and was introdu ...
engines. At the time of the accident, it had accumulated about 11,000 flight hours in 6,800 flight cycles (a flight cycle is one takeoff and landing).
The
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of Flight 1354 was 58-year old Cerea Beal, Jr. Prior to being hired by UPS, Beal was employed by TWA as a
flight engineer
A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is the member of an aircraft's flight crew who monitors and operates its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referred to as the "air me ...
and then
first officer on the
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...
. He was hired by UPS in October 1990 as a 727 flight engineer and became a 727 first officer in August 1994.
Twice, in 2000 and again in 2002, Beal began and then withdrew from training to upgrade to captain on the 727.
He transitioned to the A300 as a first officer in 2004 and then as a captain in 2009. At the time of the accident, he had accumulated 6,406 flight hours at UPS, 3,265 of which were on the A300.
The first officer was 37-year-old Shanda Fanning. Fanning was hired by UPS in 2006 as a 727 flight engineer. She became a first officer on the
Boeing 757
The Boeing 757 is an American narrow-body airliner designed and built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
The then-named 7N7, a twinjet successor for the 727 (a trijet), received its first orders in August 1978.
The prototype completed its mai ...
in 2007, then transitioned to the
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022.
After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
in 2009. She began flying the A300 in June 2012. At the time of the accident, she had accumulated 4,721 total flight hours, including 403 hours on the A300.
Accident
The aircraft crashed around 04:47 local time (CDT, 09:47 UTC) while making a localizer nonprecision approach to runway 18 at Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport. It clipped trees and struck ground three times uphill. The fuselage broke apart, with the nose coming to rest about away from the initial point of impact, and the rest of it about farther down towards the runway and about from its edge and catching fire. Both crew members died in the accident.
Investigation
The
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
(NTSB) launched an investigation and sent a 26-member
go team to the crash site to collect perishable evidence. The
cockpit voice recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
(CVR) and
flight data recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has b ...
(FDR) were recovered on the following day and sent for analysis.
At their third media briefing on August 16, 2013, the NTSB reported that the crew had briefed the approach to runway 18 and were cleared to land by
air traffic control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...
two minutes prior to the end of the recording. At 16 seconds before the end of the recording, the aircraft's
ground proximity warning system (GPWS) sounded two "
sink rate
In aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronauti ...
" alerts, meaning that the aircraft was descending too rapidly. Three seconds later, Captain Beal reported having the runway in sight, which was confirmed by First Officer Fanning. The CVR recorded the sound of the first impact with trees 3 seconds after the pilots reported seeing the runway. A final "too low terrain" alert by the GPWS was then recorded, followed by the final sounds of impact.
To represent the country of manufacture, the French aviation accident investigation agency
Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety
The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA, ) is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those inve ...
(BEA), assisted by
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
technical advisors, participated in the investigation.
Members of the
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
Evidence Response Team also assisted the NTSB. The NTSB stated in late August that no mechanical anomalies had yet been uncovered, but that the complete investigation would take several months.
On February 20, 2014, the NTSB held a public hearing in connection with its investigation. Excerpts from the CVR were presented, in which both the captain and first officer discussed their lack of sufficient sleep prior to the flight.
On September 9, 2014, the NTSB announced that the probable cause of the accident was that the aircrew had made an unstabilized approach into Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport during which they failed to adequately monitor their altitude. The aircraft descended below the minimum descent altitude when the runway was not yet in sight, resulting in
controlled flight into terrain
In aviation, a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT; usually ) is an aviation accidents and incidents, accident in which an airworthy aircraft, under aircraft pilot, pilot control, is unintentionally flown into the ground, a mountain, a body of ...
about short of the runway threshold. The NTSB also found that contributing factors in the accident were:
#the flight crew's failure to properly configure and verify the flight management computer for the profile approach
#the captain's failure to communicate his intentions to the first officer once it became apparent the vertical profile was not captured
#the flight crew's expectation that they would break out of cloud at above ground level ue to incomplete weather information#the first officer's failure to make the required minimums callouts
#the captain's performance deficiencies, likely due to factors including, but not limited to, fatigue, distraction, or confusion, consistent with performance deficiencies exhibited during training
#the first officer's fatigue due to acute sleep loss resulting from her ineffective off-duty time management
Aftermath
In 2014, the
Independent Pilots Association
The Independent Pilots Association (IPA) is the collective bargaining unit for the more than 2800 airline pilots of United Parcel Service.
IPA Foundation
Since the early days of the association, the IPA leadership has felt it was important for t ...
filed suit against the FAA to end the cargo airplane exemption from the
flight crew minimum rest requirements. In 2016, the lawsuit was dismissed by a Washington, DC, court, which determined the FAA had acted reasonably by excluding cargo airlines from the rest requirement based on a cost vs benefits analysis.
Bret Fanning, husband of First Officer Shanda Fanning, filed a lawsuit against
Honeywell Aerospace
Honeywell Aerospace is a manufacturer of aircraft engines and avionics, as well as a producer of auxiliary power units (APUs) and other aviation products. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, it is a division of the Honeywell International conglome ...
in 2014, alleging that its GPWS installed on the A300 failed to alert the pilots that their aircraft was dangerously close to the ground.
Fanning claimed that the GPWS did not sound an alarm until one second after the aircraft began to clip the tops of trees;
however, the NTSB determined from the aircraft's FDR that the GPWS sounded a "sink rate" warning when the aircraft was above the ground, 8 seconds before the first impact with trees.
In popular culture
UPS Airlines Flight 1354 was also covered in the 10th episode of season 21 on ''
Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...
'' titled "Deadly Delivery".
See also
*
Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268
Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 was an Airbus A300, registration which crashed while approaching Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on 28 September 1992. All 167 people on board were killed. Flight 268 is the worst crash ...
*
Thai Airways International Flight 311
Thai Airways International Flight 311 was a flight from Bangkok, Thailand's Don Mueang International Airport to Kathmandu, Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport. On Friday, 31 July 1992, an Airbus A310-304 on the route, registration crashed on ...
*
Flying Tiger Line Flight 66
Flying Tiger Line Flight 66 was a scheduled international cargo flight from Singapore Changi Airport, to Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport via a stopover at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia. On February 19, 1989, the FedEx-owned Boeing ...
*
1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash
On April 3, 1996, a United States Air Force Boeing CT-43A (Flight IFO-21) crashed on approach to Dubrovnik, Croatia, while on an official trade mission. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-200 originally built as T-43A navigational trainer and later conv ...
*
Korean Air Flight 801
Korean Air Flight 801 (KE801, KAL801) was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Korean Air. The flight crashed on August 6, 1997, on approach to Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport, in the United States territory of Guam, k ...
*
Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286
Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 (operating as Continental Express Flight 2286) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Denver, Colorado, to Durango, Colorado, operated for Continental Express by Trans-Colorado Airlines. On 19 Januar ...
*
Asiana Airlines Flight 214
Asiana Airlines Flight 214 was a scheduled transpacific passenger flight originating from Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea. On the morning of July 6, 2013, the Boeing 777-200ER operating the flight stalled and crashed on f ...
References
External links
*
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
**
**
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*UPS Airlines
*
Statement on UPS Flight 1354"
Archive
*
Flight UP1354 on August 14, 2013 A300-600, registered N155UP"
Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety
The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA, ) is an agency of the French government, responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those inve ...
Archive
UPS Flight 1354 accident in Birmingham – Alabama USA"
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
ArchiveFlight 1354's flight path on FlightAware
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Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript and accident summary
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