Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529

**Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529** was an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia aircraft that crashed near Carrollton, Georgia, on August 21, 1995. Nine of the 29 passengers and crew on board were killed as a result of the accident. The accident bore similarities to Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311, which had occurred four years earlier, and resulted in the deaths of everyone on board.

The inquiries of both crashes concluded that design flaws in the aircraft's propellers were to blame.

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## Aircraft and flight information

Flight 529 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Gulfport, Mississippi.

On August 21, 1995, the flight was operated using an Embraer EMB 120RT Brasilia (registration number *N256AS*), a twin-turboprop commuter airliner. The aircraft made its first flight in 1989 and was delivered to Atlantic Southeast Airlines on March 3 of that same year. Before the fatal flight, it had made 18,171 cycles (one cycle can be roughly defined as one flight) and accumulated a total of 17,151.3 flight hours. The aircraft was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and a flight data recorder (FDR).

The captain of the flight was Edwin "Ed" Gannaway, age 45, and the first officer was Matthew "Matt" Warmerdam, age 28. Gannaway was a skilled pilot with 9,876 total hours of flying experience, including 7,374 flight hours in the Embraer Brasilia. Warmerdam was hired by the airline in April 1995 and had logged a total of 1,193 flight hours (including 363 hours in the Embraer Brasilia) at the time of the accident. The sole flight attendant, Robin Fech, age 33, was hired by the airline in February 1993 and had completed her last recurrent training in January 1995.

## Passengers

Business travelers, ranging from 18 to 69 years of age, comprised most of the aircraft's passengers. Six engineers, two deputy sheriffs, two air force personnel, a minister, and a New Orleans woman planning to become a flight attendant were also on the aircraft.

## Accident

Flight 529 left the ramp area at Atlanta at 12:10 Eastern Daylight Time, and took off at 12:23. At 12:43:25, while climbing through 18,100 feet, the occupants of the aircraft heard a thud which First Officer Warmerdam later described as sounding like "a baseball bat striking an aluminum trash can." One of the blades of the Hamilton Standard propeller on the left engine had failed and the entire assembly had become dislodged, deforming the engine nacelle and distorting the wing's profile.

Although the EMB 120, like all transport-category multi-engine airplanes, is designed to fly with one engine inoperative, the distortion of the engine resulted in excessive drag and loss of lift on the left side of the aircraft, causing it to rapidly lose altitude.

The flight crew initially tried to return to Atlanta for an emergency landing but the rapid descent resulted in them being diverted to West Georgia Regional Airport. The airplane was unable to stay in the air long enough and the pilots began searching for an open space to make an emergency landing. At 12:52:45, before the emergency landing could commence the aircraft pitched over and began an uncommanded dive, striking the tops of the trees before crashing with a slight nose down attitude into a field in Carroll County, Georgia, near the farming community of Burwell and the city of Carrollton. The impact forces violently tore off the already damaged left wing, and split the fuselage in half.