2017 Teterboro Learjet 35 crash

On May 15, 2017, a Learjet 35A business jet operated by Trans-Pacific Air Charter crashed while on approach to Teterboro Airport, killing both pilots, the only two occupants on board. The aircraft, flying a repositioning flight from Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, was flying a circle-to-land approach to land on Runway 1 when it stalled and crashed into a commercial building and a parking lot.

The investigation, conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board, determined several factors that led to the crash. The captain of the flight allowed the underqualified first officer to be the pilot flying, which was directly against company procedures. Neither flight crew member conducted an approach briefing, which led to a loss of situation awareness and a failure to maintain proper altitude during the approach. During the circle-to-land maneuver — which was conducted on an unstabilized approach and not in guidance with air traffic control instructions – the captain was focused on aligning the aircraft with the runway rather than indications in the cockpit that showed the airspeed was too slow. This resulted in an aerodynamic stall at such a low altitude that the crew was unable to recover.

Flight

On May 15, 2017, N452DA was scheduled to fly three flights. The first flight was from Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey to Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts. The second flight was from Hanscom Field to Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, which carried three passengers. The plan for the passengers was to continue to fly on the same aircraft on its third flight, from Philadelphia Airport to Teterboro Airport, but after the aircraft fishtailed hard on landing, they decided to drive up to Teterboro rather than fly. The pilots were not required to fly to Teterboro as a result, but decided that they would stay in a hotel in New York rather than in Philadelphia.

Teterboro Airport has two runways, Runway 1/19 and 6/24. Under normal wind conditions, aircraft would fly into the headwind and land on Runway 6. On May 15, however, the wind was coming from the northwest, which resulted in favorable conditions for landing on Runway 1. Due to other international airports in the path of Runway 1, aircraft planning to land on the runway were to do a circle-to-land approach. This approach involves using the instrument landing system (ILS) signal for Runway 6, then deviating from course around MetLife Stadium to line up for Runway 1.

Accident

Captain Ramsey filed an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan from Philadelphia to Teterboro at 14:15, with a planned en route time of 28 minutes and a cruising altitude of 27,000 ft. This planned altitude was determined to be inappropriate for such a short flight. Additionally, this was the only preflight preparation that either flight crew member conducted, as the weather briefing was conducted before the first flight of the day. At 14:33, the crew contacted clearance delivery for Philadelphia, who gave the flight's prescribed clearance with the exception of the planned altitude, with the controller giving the flight an altitude of 4,000 ft 10 minutes after departure. At 15:00:51, the captain said to the first officer, "okay I think we're next man. hand on your yoke," giving control of the flight to the first officer. As First Officer Alino was rated as an SIC-0, he was not allowed to be the pilot flying, and Captain Ramsey giving the controls over to him was a violation of standard operating procedures. Four minutes later, N452DA was cleared for takeoff. The aircraft climbed through 2,000 ft safely and contacted Philadelphia approach control soon afterward, where it was cleared to climb and level off at 4,000 ft.

At 15:06, air traffic control (ATC) cleared the aircraft to take a shortcut to waypoint MAZIE. Shortly after, the captain instructed the first officer to control basic flight parameters, including altitude and airspeed. Ramsey told Alino to "keep us below two fifty," instructing him to keep the airspeed below 250 kn, the limit for aircraft flying below 10,000 ft. However, they exceeded that speed, and when ATC asked, "N452DA, what's

your airspeed?" Ramsey admitted that they were flying at 260 kn and that they violated the speed limit. At 15:12, he asked ATC if they could climb any higher, but ATC replied, "unable higher, I would have to spin you back around and sequence you with the rest of the traffic goin' into Teterboro." The first officer commented on this by saying to the captain, "it's like she doesn't like us," with the captain replying, "she's a # idiot. get us someone else if she can't do it."

The crew contacted New York approach control at 15:14, where they were given instructions to line up with the ILS for Runway 6 to circle-to-land on Runway 1. After asking ATC to repeat the altimeter setting, Captain Ramsey expressed shock and confusion about the instructions ATC gave them. "What the # are they doing man? circling six?" he said in the cockpit to Alino, followed by, "he was saying circling # six or something. I don't know what the # they thinkin' we're doin'. we're # hundreds of miles away man." This was an incorrect statement by the captain, as when he made this comment to the first officer, the aircraft was only 48 nmi away from Teterboro. A minute later, he realized their true distance to the airport and said, "we're # gonna be there in ten minutes. I gotta get the # ATIS #. I didn't realize we're that # close." The crew tuned into the ATIS frequency, but turned it off after only acknowledging the altimeter setting.

At 15:19:17, ATC instructed the crew to fly on a heading 90° to intercept the localizer for Runway 6. The aircraft turned on that heading but flew through the localizer course at 15:20:20. Soon after, First Officer Alino reported to the captain that he had the runway in sight. However, he was looking at Newark Liberty International Airport and not Teterboro. ATC reminded the crew to intercept the localizer, to which Captain Ramsey acknowledged. However, in the cockpit, he and the first officer expressed confusion about where Teterboro truly was. Within a minute, they realized that they were seeing Newark rather than Teterboro, with Alino commenting, "Yeah that was Newark. That was Newark. I thought that was Teterboro." After they properly intercepted the localizer for Runway 6, Ramsey continued to instruct Alino on how to manage the engine power levers and the airspeed.

Whilst setting up the flight management system (FMS), ATC instructed the crew to fly to VINGS, a waypoint on the localizer path for Runway 6. The captain entered VINGS into the FMS and while he was doing so, the first officer tried to tell the captain to take over the controls for him, but no handover of controls took place. The captain said, "you still got the localizer on your side so we're doin' good." The first officer responded with, "alright. I don't wanna # up." ATC then instructed the aircraft to slow down to 180 kn from 240 kn and to descend at 15:23. While the crew did slow down the aircraft, they did not descend and as a consequence, they remained above the glideslope.

At 15:26, ATC gave three instructions to the flight crew of N452DA: contact Teterboro tower, cross waypoint DANDY at 1,500 ft, and begin the circle-to-land maneuver at waypoint TORBY. Captain Ramsey acknowledged these instructions but failed to comply with any of them. He did not make First Officer Alino descend to 1,500 ft and they kept flying at 2,050 ft. Once they passed DANDY, the autopilot failed to capture the glideslope signal as their altitude was too high. After passing DANDY, Ramsey told Alino to follow the glideslope but not descend below 1,500 ft. This was above the approach height for the path between DANDY and TORBY of 1,300 ft, so the aircraft remained above the glideslope. The crew only contacted Teterboro tower after being reminded to do so again by ATC. The aircraft passed TORBY at 1,500 ft and instead of starting the circle-to-land maneuver, it continued to fly towards Runway 6. At 15:29:07 while descending to 700 ft, ATC asked the crew, "you gonna start that turn?" Despite being only 1 nmi from the start of Runway 6, too close to start and complete the circle-to-land maneuver safely, Captain Ramsey simply replied, "yeah sir we're doin' it right now."

Captain Ramsey directed First Officer Alino to start a right turn as part of the circle-to-land maneuver, in which the aircraft descended from 650 ft to 350 ft. The first officer tried to tell the captain in the turn, "your flight controls," but the captain did not respond. Soon after at 15:29:18, the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) issued an aural "five hundred" feet altitude alert, followed three seconds later by "sink rate, pull up!" First Officer Alino soon gave control of the flight to Captain Ramsey, to which Ramsey acknowledged and assumed control. He told Alino to watch the airspeed, which was decreasing as the aircraft entered a left turn. As the bank angle of the aircraft increased, the wings started to produce less lift and the airspeed of the aircraft started to decrease. The first officer called out, "V-ref," indicating that the aircraft's speed was falling below the landing reference speed. He followed this call with, "add airspeed, airspeed, airspeed, airspeed." At this time, the bank angle had increased to 35° to the left and the airspeed had fallen to 111 kn. Captain Ramsey announced, "stall," to which First Officer replied, "yup." The EGPWS once again issued a "sink rate, pull up!" warning as the right wing stalled. The aircraft went into an inverted attitude as it rapidly rolled to the right. The right wingtip of the aircraft impacted a commercial building which was shortly followed by N452DA crashing into a parking lot. The wreckage of the aircraft was distributed along a 315 ft long debris path 0.43 nmi south of Runway 1, which damaged or destroyed three buildings and sixteen vehicles. Both pilots were killed on impact.