Did An Overweight Plane Cause This Crash? (Air Midwest Flight 5481) – DISASTER BREAKDOWN
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On January 8th 2003, Air Midwest operating as US Airways Express Flight 5481 crashed just moments after take-off from Charlotte Douglas Airport. The crash raises some uncomfortable question with regards to flying on smaller planes. Was this plane too heavy? and what role did maintenance play in this incident?
Sources
https://reports.aviation-safety.net/2003/20030108-0_B190_N233YV.pdf
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20030108-0
https://beechcraft.txtav.com/en
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/31031/how-safe-is-the-beechcraft-1900
https://www.healthline.com/health/mens-health/average-weight-for-men#_noHeaderPrefixedContent
source


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What do you mean by "stand upright"? Asking because english is my second language 🙂
Right down the interstate from me, and on my 24th birthday.
Whenever I fly a commuter plane, I look around at the passengers. If all seats are full, I feel dread, especially if there are a lot of men or obese women. And in high altitude airports such as Denver, when they occasionally have to limit the load because of heat and the high elevation, and they say they need to deplane two passengers, I feel so nervous, thinking that if the plane is that close to being overweight, simply by two passengers, I want to stand up and shout, “please take the two fattest passengers”.
As someone who edits for wikihow, that 2024 date was the last time that the page was updated, which could have been a minor spelling fix. The steps could easily be from 2013
Only 89kg? Must have gone to yank Weight Watchers for those numbers. The average mass of a burger-swilling invasion-monkey is at least 110kg after a 2 week fast.
Why copy the same story from another producer?
Did anyone do prison time for this shit?
Can't use average weight anymore. Especially women's weight which has increased dramatically over the years.
Great video and reporting on this tragedy! I live in Charlotte and even though this was 20 years ago, it's still something everyone around here remembers. The details of the investigation were quite shocking and tragic.
One thing that deserves a mention is that Douglas and Tereasa Shepard, whose daughter, Christiana was lost in the crash went a step further by not only demanding financial compensation from Air Midwest, but also an apology. They did this by putting a face to their daughter's name. Well, in the end, the airline did deliver a full public apology to the relatives and associates of the 21 people who perished that day, and this actually proved to be somewhat precedent setting.
Raytheon dropped the ball. Improper maintenance quality control crews. They were totally incapable of performing the required maintenance check correctly.
Heavier passengers should sit more towards the middle.
Cannot stand the music overdub. It is distracting.
My dad was considered a mechanical expert on the 1900D and was brought to NC as part of the NTSB's investigation. He wouldn't tell us about his time there and only recently told me that when he was brought to the crash site to begin auditing for mechanical failure, the bodies were still present on the crash site. That was all I could get him to say on the matter apart from how that year was when he truly began to consider retirement. RIP to all who were killed in this tragedy and condolences to all who were affected directly or indirectly.
Rip to anyone who died
I love your channel. Keep up the amazing work! ❤
Love the channel but the funeral music in the background is unsettling imo.
Yay Wichita. We make planes so you never have to set foot in Kansas again 🤣
They do say that the mass in the ass dictates the angle of the dangle.
Not a pilot, but I already know from KSP how much center of mass and center of lift impact the pitch behaviour of a plane.
Was there anything the crew could have possibly done to save the plane, or was the crash inevitable? It looks like the latter to me, but just wanted to ask…
,25 year old captain,hell no,that still in the "I'm invincible" age group,I want a pilot that was shot down in nam or at least military trained.
Why not wheigh the weight of 19 people? In a big plane it makes sense not to, with 19 passengers is just lazyness.
In Us avr weight for passenger should be doubled 😀
Fat America…..
10:36 was now: 17'00 700 kg
Hate it when the narrator messes up his own details, not a big deal but it is
One time I wouldn’t want a woman pilot
This crash happened q day before grandmother and myself moved to Barbados for good
Even if the stated takeoff weight of 17,018 pounds had been correctly calculated, that weight still would have been over 99 percent of the maximum takeoff weight value for the aircraft. In other words, no safety margin whatsoever.
Very well explained. Good job!
19 american adults > (19 japanese adults x 5)
The faulty maintenance procedure caused this accident.
The plane being overweight seems like more of a side note than anything.
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Love this channel, but really dislike the use of music as a backdrop, it is unnecessary and distracting