Southern Airways Flight 242

McAdams added the following contributing factor: “Contributing to the cause were the inadequacies of the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control system which precluded the dissemination of real-time hazardous weather information to the flight crew.”

The most unique thing about this particular aircraft disaster was the fact that both engines on a twin-engine aircraft failed. This is a very rare occurrence, and is one of the many “worst nightmares” an airline pilot has. The NTSB issued a recommendation that all weather RADAR systems in planes and air traffic control centers be upgraded to allow pilots to get more accurate weather information. As a result, aircraft today are flying with color weather RADAR which allows pilots to not only measure where bad weather is but how severe it is as well. Also, the situation with engines helped the aviation industry better understand engine surges and how to manage them.

My personal opinion is that the crew should have had accurate weather reports on the ground and they should have never taken off. Although once in the air and in the situation, the crew did what I think most pilots would have done. They saw a “gap” in between the storms and they tried to fly through it. They should have considered a possibility of a surge, but since the engines did fail, they did get to a landing area, but only at the last minute, they should have picked one out sooner. But I mainly believe the flight crew did what they thought to be correct and, after reading the CVR transcription, if I put myself in their positions I would have made many of the same choices. I do agree with the NTSB report’s conclusion that the crash’s contributing factor was inadequate weather information from both the pilot’s and the air traffic controller’s RADAR systems.