| - | ACCIDENT DETAILS |
| Date: | May 02, 2005 |
| Time: | 2214 |
| Location: | Near Stratford, New Zealand |
| Operator: | Airwork NZ |
| Flight #: | 23 |
| Route: | Auckland - Blenheim |
| AC Type: | Swearingen SA.227AC Metro III |
| Registration: | ZK-POA |
| cn / ln: | AC-551B |
| Aboard: | 2 (passengers:0 crew:2) |
| Fatalities: | 2 (passengers:0 crew:2) |
| Ground: | 0 |
| Summary: | The plane entered a spiral descent and broke up. It found the captain noticed a fuel imbalance and opened the crossfeed. This resulted in the plane being flown at a large sideslip angle while still under autopilot control, by means of the rudder trim mechanism. Forty-seven seconds after the cross flow was opened, there was a "bank angle" warning, followed by a warning chime that was presumably a warning they were straying from their correct altitude. The autopilot disengaging, probably due to a servo reaching its torque limit. This meant that there was no compensation applied for the rudder trim input, and the plane entered a roll and steep descent, disintegrating around FL 199. The investigation found poor visibility at night in low cloud was a factor in preventing the pilots realizing sooner. |
Sources
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