Wikipedia:Air Tahoma Flight 587

Air Tahoma Flight 587 was a crew training and post-maintenance check flight that crashed shortly after takeoff from Columbus, Ohio, on September 1, 2008. The flight—destined for Mansfield, Ohio—was operated by a Convair CV-580 crewed by two acting pilots and one observer. A combination of improper maintenance and preflight actions resulted in its uncontrolled collision with terrain, subsequently killing all three occupants.

Aircraft
The accident aircraft was a Convair CV-580 (serial number 361) that had initially been built as a Convair CV-440-12. Prior to its acquisition by Air Tahoma, the aircraft was previously owned and operated by Sabena, Frontier Airlines, IBS Airlines, SAAB Aircraft Holdings Inc., European Air Transport, DHL Worldwide Express, Astar Air Cargo, and SNAS Worldwide Express. Air Tahoma took delivery of the aircraft in 2005. It was powered by two Allison 501-D13D turboprop engines and had 71,965 flight hours.

The captain was 57-year-old Urs Anderegg, who had 16,087 flight hours, including 3,000 hours on the Convair CV-580. The first officer was 58-year-old James Monahan, a former ATA Airlines captain with 19,285 hours of flight experience. He had previously served as a captain on the Boeing 727 and Lockheed L 1011 TriStar. 41-year-old Sean Gardiner was also on board as an observer. He was not type rated on the Convair CV-580.

Accident
Flight 587 was N587X's first flight following a maintenance check which included flight control rigging. The flight was also to familiarize first officer Monahan and observer Gardiner with the Convair CV-580. The flight took off at 12:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time, only for first officer Monahan to report problems and request a return to the airport one minute later. The flight ultimately lasted two minutes and forty seconds prior to impacting terrain at 12:06 local time. The crash site, in a cornfield one mile short of runway 05L, impeded aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) efforts due to its remote location several hundred yards from a road. All three occupants were killed.

Investigation
The post-crash investigation was managed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Officials recovered the aircraft's Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), but its "black box" Flight Data Recorder (FDR) was reportedly inoperable before takeoff and therefore unusable in the investigation.

In its findings, the NTSB noted that during a C-Check before the accident flight, control cables within the aircraft's empennage were disconnected, reconnected, and rigged as part of the check. The wreckage revealed that the aircraft had impacted the ground with its landing gear down and with a slight right roll.

It was further determined that the control cables in the elevator trim had been replaced at the last minute. As a result, when the pilots applied nose up inputs, the elevators applied nose down trim instead. The CVR recorded captain Anderegg shouting "Pull!" 27 times starting from takeoff to impact. No callouts for the landing gear were made. In addition to faulty maintenance, the flight crew's pre-flight check of the aircraft was inadequate, and their response to the trim problem was incorrect.