Priority Air Transport Flight 528

Priority Air Transport Flight 528 (PAT528) was a flight of the Florida National Guard from Hurlburt Field in Florida to Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia, on which an aircraft of the type Shorts C-23B+ Sherpa crashed near Unadilla, Georgia, on 3 March 2001. All 21 people on board were killed in the accident. The immediate cause of the accident was a loss of control, which occurred because the captain went to the toilet during the flight.

Accident sequence

Priority Air Flight 528 had taken off from Hurlburt Field in Florida on the morning of 3 March and was to fly to Naval Air Station Oceana in the state of Virginia. 18 soldiers of a maintenance and repair team of the Virginia National Guard had boarded the flight; in addition, there were three crew members on board who belonged to the Florida National Guard. When the aircraft was in Georgia airspace, the captain rose from his seat and went back to the on-board toilet. At that time the aircraft was flying through an area in which severe turbulence prevailed. While the captain was walking to the rear, the aircraft's angle of attack slowly increased until the aircraft's nose was suddenly jerked abruptly downwards. Within three seconds the aircraft, with its nose pointing down, rose by more than 100 feet (approx. 30 metres) and was then caught by a wind shear that was three times stronger than what is regarded as extreme turbulence. Within the first twelve seconds of the loss of control, such g-forces acted on the aircraft that passengers and crew were incapacitated; the aircraft then broke apart as a result of exceeding its load limits and crashed to the ground near Unadilla.