Eastern Air Lines Flight 212

On September 11, 1974, Eastern Air Lines Flight 212, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashed during approach to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, killing 72 of the 82 people on board. The scheduled flight was from Charleston Municipal Airport, South Carolina, to Chicago O'Hare, Illinois, with an intermediate stop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 212

Wreckage of N8984E at the accident site
Accident
Date	September 11, 1974 (1974-09-11)
Summary	Controlled flight into terrain
Site	Near Douglas Municipal Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States 35°09′14″N 80°55′34″W
Aircraft
N8983E, an aircraft similar to the one involved
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31
Operator	Eastern Air Lines
IATA flight No.	EA212
ICAO flight No.	EAL212
Call sign	EASTERN 212
Registration	N8984E[1]
Flight origin	Charleston Municipal Airport, Charleston, South Carolina
Stopover	Douglas Municipal Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina
Destination	Chicago O'Hare, Chicago, Illinois
Occupants	82
Passengers	78
Crew	4
Fatalities	72
Injuries	9
Survivors	10

An investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that multiple crew errors were the primary cause of the crash.

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft was a five-year-old McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 registered as N8984E with serial number 47400. It was manufactured and delivered to Eastern Air Lines on January 30, 1969. In its five years of service, it had logged a total of 16,860.6 hours of flying time.^[2][3]: 25

Crew

In command was 49-year-old Captain James E. Reeves, who had been with the airline since 1956. He had 8,876 flight hours, including 3,856 hours on the DC-9.^[3]: 24 The first officer was 36-year-old James M. Daniels Jr. He had been with the airline since 1966 and had 3,016 flight hours, including 2,693 hours on the DC-9.^[3]: 24

Accident

While conducting an instrument approach in dense ground fog into Douglas Municipal Airport in Charlotte, the aircraft crashed at 7:34 am EDT more than three miles (5 km) short of Runway 36, killing 72 of the 82 on board.^[4] Thirteen survived the initial impact, including the first officer and one flight attendant,^[5] but three of the initial survivors ultimately died from severe burn injuries^[6] as late as 29 days after the accident.^[3]

Investigation and recommendations

While investigating this accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reviewed the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and found that the flight crew had engaged in unnecessary and "nonpertinent" conversation during the approach phase of the flight, discussing subjects "ranging from politics to used cars."^[3] The NTSB concluded that conducting such nonessential chatter can distract pilots from their flying duties during the critical phases of flight, such as instrument approach to landing, and recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) establish rules and educate pilots to focus exclusively on flying tasks while operating at low altitudes. It was later realized that this rule should also apply to takeoffs; for example, the lack of a sterile cockpit environment was a contributing factor to the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 on January 13, 1982. The FAA, after more than six years of consideration, finally published the sterile cockpit rule in 1981.^[7][8]

The NTSB also found that the crew was apparently trying to visually locate the airport while executing an instrument approach in the presence of low-lying fog. In addition, a persistent attempt to visually identify the nearby Carowinds amusement park tower, known as "Carowinds Tower" to pilots,^[9] which rose to an elevation of 1,314 feet (401 m), or 340 feet (105 m) above ground level (AGL), may have further distracted and confused the flight crew. The first officer was operating the flight controls, and none of the required altitude callouts were made by the captain, which compounded the flight crew's nearly total lack of altitude awareness.

During the investigation, the issue of the combustibility of passengers' clothing materials was raised. There was evidence that passengers who wore double-knit synthetic fiber clothing articles sustained significantly worse burn injuries during the post-crash fire than passengers who wore articles made from natural fibers.^[3]

The NTSB released its final report on May 23, 1975,^[3] concluding that the accident was caused by the flight crew's lack of altitude awareness and poor cockpit discipline.^[10] The NTSB issued the following official probable cause:^[10]

"The flight crew's lack of altitude awareness at critical points during the approach due to poor cockpit discipline in that the crew did not follow prescribed procedure".

Notable fatalities

Among the fatalities was the vice president for academic affairs of the Medical University of South Carolina, James William Colbert Jr.,^[11] and two of his sons; they were the father and brothers of future television personality Stephen Colbert.^[12][13]

See also

• United States portal
• Aviation portal
• 1970s portal

• 2000 Marsa Brega Short 360 crash – a similar crash in Libya in which the pilot discussed another plane system instead of focusing on the flight
• Aviation safety
• Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, another Eastern Airlines CFIT accident caused by pilot distraction
• Ground proximity warning system
• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• Avianca Flight 410
• September 11 attacks, which happened on the same day 27 years later.