Texas Aviation Attorneys

Houston Texas Crash During Approach Landing Kills 3 and Injurs 1

Houston, Texas: A Gulfstream G-1159A operated by Business Jet Services Ltd. struck a light pole and crashed about 3 miles southwest of William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), Houston, Texas, while on an instrument landing system approach to runway 4. The two pilots and the flight attendant were killed, an individual in a vehicle near the airport received minor injuries, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces. The airplane was being operated under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 on an instrument flight rules flight plan. Instrument meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.

The accident flight was scheduled to depart from Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL), Dallas, Texas, as a positioning flight to HOU. The flight crew planned to pick up former President George H.W. Bush and other passengers at HOU and transport them to Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The flight departed at DAL was delayed because of poor weather conditions at HOU and DAL. The captain was the flying pilot, and the first officer performed the nonflying pilot duties.

The flight crew received HOU automatic terminal information service information “Quebec,” which reported that the winds were calm, the visibility was 1/8 statute mile in fog, the runway visual range for runway 4 was variable between 1,600 and 2,400 feet, and the clouds were broken at 100 feet and overcast at 9,000 feet. The cockpit voice recorder recorded the first officer starting the approach briefing. About 3 minutes later, the CVR recorded a discussion between the pilots about entering the navigational approach fixes CARCO, ELREN, EISEN, and Hobby (HUB) very high frequency omnidirectional range in the airplane’s flight management system. The captain asked, “we can probably delete HUB though, can’t we?” The first officer replied, “yeah, we could ‘cause we’re gonna have that on here for our missed approach point.”

The controller cleared the flight directly to CARCO, adding, “when you’re able for the ILS runway four.” The first officer acknowledged the transmission; however, he read back, “ILS runway one four” instead of “ runway four.” He then stated, “I’ll set up our ILS, in here, one oh nine nine.”

the Houston TRACON controller instructed the flight crew to descend to and maintain 3,000 feet. Radar data indicated that, about this time, the airplane was at an altitude of about 11,000 feet and was located about 29 miles northwest of HOU. The first officer started the before landing checklist, and, about 1 minute later, he stated, “five miles…from CARCO.” The controller instructed the flight crew to turn left heading 070° and to maintain an altitude of “2,000 feet or above ‘til established on the localizer.” The controller then cleared the flight for the ILS runway 4 approach. The first officer stated, “localizer’s alive.”

An airplane performance study conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board indicated that the airplane was descending through an altitude of about 2,900 feet on a southeasterly heading when it started turning left to converge on the ILS localizer. The airplane continued descending during the inbound turn and leveled off at an altitude of about 2,300 feet. The Houston TRACON controller instructed the flight crew to contact the HOU air traffic control tower. About 16 seconds later, the first officer contacted the HOU ATCT and stated, “with you on the ILS.” The ATCT controller reported calm winds and then cleared the flight to land on runway 4. The performance study indicated that, about this time, the airplane was still at an altitude of about 2,300 feet and was located about 11 miles southwest of HOU.

The captain asked the first officer to get the RVR. He then stated, “I can’t get approach mode on my thing.” The first officer replied that he could not get the APR mode to activate either. The airplane descended through 2,000 feet. The airplane was about 1,000 feet below the glideslope about this time and that the airplane remained 600 to 1,000 feet below the glideslope until impact.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the flight crew’s failure to adequately monitor and cross-check the flight instruments during the approach. Contributing to the accident was the flight crew’s failure to select the instrument landing system frequency in a timely manner and to adhere to approved company approach procedures, including the stabilized approach criteria.

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