Henson Airlines Flight 1517

Henson Airlines Flight 1517
Accident
Date September 23, 1985
Summary Controlled flight into terrain, pilot error
Site Grottoes, Virginia
Aircraft type Beech 99
Operator Henson AIrlines
DBA Piedmont Commuter
Registration N339HA
Flight origin Baltimore-Washington International Airport
Destination Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport
Passengers 12
Crew 2
Fatalities 14
Survivors 0

On September 23, 1985, Henson Airlines Flight 1517 crashed in Grottoes, Virginia, while on approach to the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. The two pilots and twelve passengers were killed.

Accident details

Henson Airlines Flight 1517 was a regular scheduled flight from Baltimore-Washington International Airport to Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. The flight was operated on behalf of Piedmont Airlines as Piedmont Commuter.

At 9:59 am, Flight 1517 departed Baltimore bound for Shenandoah Valley. On board were twelve passengers and two crew members. The crew were Captain Martin Burns, III, 27, and First Officer Zilda Spadaro-Wolan, 26.

The flight was routine until approach into Shenandoah Valley. At 10:14 am, Captain Burns told the Air Traffic Controller that he believed that the plane was too west of his course. The controller tried several times to reach Flight 1517 by radio to no avail.

The search for Flight 1517 started at 10:25 am. At 6:42 pm, Civil Air Patrol located the crash site 6 miles east from the airport. Flight 1517 struck the southwest face of Hall Mountain at an elevation of 2,400 ft.[1]

Cause

The US National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was a navigational error by the flightcrew resulting from their use of the incorrect navigational facility and their failure to adequately monitor the flight instruments.[2]

Notable passengers

The passengers included playwright Larry Shue and several executives of Beiersdorf, a personal care products company.[3]

References

  1. ↑ http://libraryonline.erau.edu/online-full-text/ntsb/aircraft-accident-reports/AAR86-07.pdf
  2. ↑ "ASN Aircraft accident Beechcraft B99 N339HA Staunton-Shenandoah Valley Airport, VA (SHD)". Aviation Safety Network. Flight Safety Foundation. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Weyers Cave, VA Commuter Plane Crashes In Mountains, Sep 1985 - GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
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