page_title: USAir Flight 405
section_title: Poor weather, deicing, taxiing delays
hierarchical_section_title: USAir Flight 405 / Accident / Poor weather, deicing, taxiing delays
caption_attribution_description: English: USAir Flight 405 Attempted Takeoff.
context_page_description: USAir Flight 405 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight between LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York City, New York, and Cleveland, Ohio. On March 22, 1992, a USAir Fokker F28, registration N485US, flying the route, crashed in poor weather in a partially inverted position in Flushing Bay, shortly after liftoff from LaGuardia. The undercarriage lifted off from the runway; however, the airplane failed to gain lift, flying only several meters above the ground. The aircraft then veered off the runway and hit multiple obstructions before coming to rest in Flushing Bay, just beyond the end of the runway. Of the 51 people on board, 27 were killed, including the captain and a member of the cabin crew.
  A similar accident had happened three years before in 1989, when Air Ontario Flight 1363 crashed shortly after takeoff at Dryden Regional Airport after ice had accumulated on the wings and airframe. Out of 69 passengers and crew, 24 were killed.
  The subsequent investigation revealed that due to pilot error, inadequate de-icing procedures at LaGuardia, and several lengthy delays, a large amount of ice had accumulated on the wings and airframe.
context_section_description: The aircraft took off from Jacksonville International Airport, Florida, several hours before the accident, although the departure from Jacksonville was delayed by poor weather over New York and the removal of the baggage of a passenger who decided not to board the jet. The instrument approach landing was uneventful and the jet was not significantly delayed while in the air waiting to land, however congestion on the taxiways at LaGuardia delayed the arrival of the aircraft at the gate.
  One hour and six minutes behind schedule, the jet arrived at Gate B1, where the pilot advised a ground mechanic that his airplane was "good to go." The flight crew then disembarked the jet to use facilities in the terminal. The poor weather did not improve as the jet was deiced with Type I fluid, a heated 50/50 water/glycol mixture. Following the completion of this process, one of the two deicing trucks delayed the pushback of the jet when it experienced mechanical problems. The vehicle was immobilised for 20 minutes in such a position that it prevented the aircraft from taxiing to the runway following the flight crew's return.
  After the deicing truck was repaired, the pilot requested a second deicing, though the flight crew did not perform a walkaround of their airplane, and USAir procedures did not require them to do so. Following the second deicing, LaGuardia ground control granted Flight 405 permission to taxi to Runway 13. The flight crew completed the pre-flight checklist during the taxi.
  Engine anti-ice was turned on for the two engines during taxi. The captain announced to passengers that the flaps would remain up during taxi, and they should not be worried seeing them in the retracted position. He placed an empty coffee cup on the flap handle as a reminder of the position of the flaps, a procedure used by many flight crews. The captain told the first officer they would use standard USAir contaminated runway procedures that included the use of 18 degrees flaps, and also decided that they would take off with a reduced V₁ speed of 110 knots.
  Weather reports for LaGuardia showed that on the night of the accident, all taxiways were coated with a thin covering of snow. Runway 13 was also covered with a thin layer of wet snow, although it had been plowed, treated with urea and it had been sanded.
  The first officer described the snowfall as "not heavy, no large flakes." He told authorities that snow was sliding off the jet and the nose of the airplane was coated in a watery layer. He used a light positioned on the wing of his jet to check for signs of ice several times before they attempted to take off. Neither he or the pilot saw any evidence of contamination on the wing or on the black strip and therefore decided against a third deicing. He told investigators that he checked the wings "maybe 10 times, but at least 3." He said that he did not consider the snowfall heavy, and he did not recall any wind blowing the snow. The first officer stated that as they taxied, they looked back at the wings several times. Near the time of the takeoff, he said "looks good to me, black strip is clear."
  While taxiing, the flight crew discussed deicing procedures. The first officer suggested to the pilot that the aircraft ahead of them in the queue "might keep our wings clear for us." The pilot replied that "it can cause us to re-freeze too ... I don't want to be very close to him." Later, the first officer remarked "look at all that stuff. What is that?" to which the pilot replied "sand I guess, urea sand."
  The pilot of a jet taxiing behind Flight 405, Northwest Airlines Flight 517, a Boeing 757, stated that he had a good view of the top of Flight 405's wing, and that there was just enough snow on the fuselage to "fuzzy" the USAir printing but that the wings appeared to be clear. He believed that the snow had "all but stopped" and was more concerned about the amount of vehicular traffic, such as sweepers and plows, than he was about the snowfall. The second officer of Trump Shuttle Flight 1541, which had landed around the time Flight 405 was taxiing, said
caption: An NTSB diagram of Flight 405's attempted takeoff, showing it veer off the left of the runway and hit a water pump
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