Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-275 that was nearly eight years old at the time of the accident. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A turbofan engines.[4][5]

The captain was 30-year-old Chris Miles, who had been with Pacific Western Airlines since 1967 and became a Boeing 737 captain 10 years later in 1977. He had 5,173 flight hours, including 2,780 hours on the Boeing 737. The first officer was 25-year-old Peter Van Oort, who had been with the airline since 1971 and became a 737 first officer in 1977. He was less experienced than captain Miles, having logged 1,316 flight hours, but only 81 of them were on the Boeing 737.[6][7]

Flight 314 departed Calgary at 12:32 on an estimated 23-minute flight to Cranbrook. This estimate was passed to Cranbrook by Calgary Air Traffic Control.[6] Cranbrook was not a controlled airport, and while it had an "aeroradio" station to provide weather and advisory information to aircraft, it had no control tower or air traffic controllers.[6]

As Flight 314 neared the Cranbrook airport, it was snowing with a visibility of 3/4-mile, and a snow removal vehicle was clearing the runway. The Cranbrook aeroradio operator advised the snowplow of the estimated arrival of Flight 314 at 13:05. Flight 314 was expected to report on the approach when passing the "Skookum Beacon", which would give about seven minutes notice of arrival at Cranbrook.[6] At 12:45 Flight 314 contacted Cranbrook Aeroradio and was passed the latest weather and runway information.[6] At 12:47 Cranbrook Aeroradio advised Flight 314 that snow removal was in progress.[6]

After acknowledging the message about snow clearance in progress, Flight 314 made no further calls, and touched down on the runway at 12:55 about 800 feet from the threshold.[6] Flight 314 selected reverse thrust, but immediately cancelled it and started a go-around.[6] The aircraft flew down the runway at a height of 50 to 70 feet, flying over the top of the snow removal vehicle.[6]

The engine thrust reverser doors deployed, and the pilot decreased flaps from 40° to 15°. The landing gear remained locked in the down position.[6] Six seconds before impact, the aircraft was 4000 feet from the runway threshold when the left rudder was momentarily applied.[6] The aircraft climbed, then banked steeply to the left from a height of 300 to 400 feet, and crashed to the left of the runway.[6] The aircraft was destroyed by fire and the impact.[6]

The crash investigation was conducted by the Aviation Safety Investigation Division of Transport Canada and audited by the Aircraft Accident Review Board.[6] Boeing simulations showed that the aircraft was controllable with one engine at idle reverse and the other at full forward thrust in a gear up, flaps 15° configuration. With flaps 25 and gear down, it was not possible to maintain level flight. The go-around would have been successful if the left engine thrust reverser doors had not been deployed.

The events of the crash featured in an episode of the History channel documentary Disasters of the Century, entitled "Collision Course".[8]

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