On March 2, 1994, about 1759:46 eastern standard time, Continental Airlines flight 795, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, registration N18835, sustained substantial damage when the captain rejected the takeoff from runway 13 at LaGuardia Airport, Flushing, New York. The airplane continued beyond the take off end of runway 13 and came to rest on the main gear wheels with the nose pitched downward, so that the fuselage was balanced on top of a dike. The underside of the nose lay on a tidal mud flat of Flushing Bay. There were 110 passengers, 2 flightcrew members and 4 flight attendants aboard the airplane. There were no fatalities, and no serious injuries were reported. There were 29 minor injuries to passengers, all of which were sustained during the evacuation, and 1 minor injury to a flightcrew member. There was no postcrash fire.
We determined that the probable causes of this accident were the failure of the flightcrew to comply with checklist procedures to turn on an operable pitot/static heat system, resulting in ice and/or snow blockage of the pitot tubes that prduced erroneous airspeed indicatinons, and the flightcrew's untimely response to anomlous airspeed indications, and the consequent rejection of takeoff at an actual speed of the 5 knots above VI.
As a reult of this investigation, we made the following recommendations:
To the Federal Aviation Administration:
- Require manufacturer of airplanes operated by air carriers to publish and distribute to operators specific elapsed times to target speeds (given normal acceleration) the times to given airspeeds). (A-95-18)
- Require that the elapsed times to target speeds be incorporated as part of the takeoff performance data available to air carrier flightcrews. (A-95-19)
- Require that air carrier rejected takeoff training include elapsed time to target speed takeoff performance data. (A-95-20)
- Require the modification of transport category airplanes to incorporate the automatic activation of air data sensor heating systems without flightcrew action. (A-95-21)
- Amend the requirements of Part 25.1323 (e) to require that, for newly certificated airplanes, anti-ice protection for the air data sensor heating systems is provided automatically (without flightcrew action) following engine start. (A-95-22)
- Require, after December 31, 1995, that all newly manufactured cockpit voice recorders intended for use on airplanes have a minimum recording duration of 2 hours. (A-95-23)
To Continental Airlines, Inc.:
- Conduct a review of recurrent flight attendant training policies and procedures relating to all aspects of emergency evacuation training to determine if improvement or change is needed. (A-95-24)
