United Express Flight 6291

NTSB diagram of Flight 6291's flight path

Flight 6291 left the gate at Dulles at 21:58 (9:58PM) for the 90-minute flight to Columbus. The crew were Captain Derrick White (35), First Officer Anthony Samuels (29), and a flight attendant (58). There were five passengers on board.[2]

At 23:10 (11:10PM), Columbus Approach Control was contacted. The captain advised the controller that the aircraft was descending through 13,200 ft (4,000 m) to 11,000 ft (3,400 m). The controller assigned a 285-degree heading to intercept the Instrument Landing System (ILS) for runway 28L and cleared Flight 6291 to 10,000 ft (3,000 m). An updated weather report was at 23:15 (11:15PM), reporting a cloud overcast 800 ft (240 m) above the ground, visibility 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in light snow and fog with wind 300 degrees at 4 knots. A runway 28L ILS approach clearance was given when the flight passed the SUMIE final approach fix. A clearance to land on runway 28L was given two minutes later.

The aircraft was descending through an altitude of 1,250 ft (380 m) when the stick shaker activated and sounded for 3 seconds. After 1.5 seconds, the stick shaker sounded again. The aircraft continued to descend below the glide slope until it collided with a stand of trees in a high nose-up attitude. It came to rest upright in a commercial building, 1.2 mi (1.9 km) short of the runway. After the impact, a fire started in or near the left engine, which spread to the rest of the aircraft. At least four of the passengers survived the crash; however, only three – a family, though they were slowed by difficulty getting their seatbelts to release – escaped before the aircraft was fully engulfed in flames.[3]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the crash and released its report on October 6, 1994. In the report, the crew and Atlantic Coast Airlines were faulted for the crash. The pilots followed a poorly planned and executed approach, then improperly responded to a stall warning, and lacked experience in aircraft equipped with an electronic flight instrument system. Atlantic Coast failed to provide adequate stabilized approach criteria, suitable training simulators, and crew resource management training.[4]

In addition, the report recommended that the type of seatbelts used on the aircraft be removed from service on all airplanes, and that certification of future seatbelt designs include a test matching the conditions that were experienced during this incident.[4]

The crash of United Express Flight 6291 was covered in "Slam Dunk", a Season 19 episode of the internationally syndicated Canadian TV documentary series Mayday.[5]