Two crew members died when a small cargo plane carrying packages for UPS Inc. crashed after touching down at a West Virginia airport.
The Short 330 twin turboprop’s left wing struck the runway after landing May 5 and the plane then veered off the runway, according to an e-mailed statement from the Federal Aviation Administration. According to early indications, the plane went down a hillside at Yeager Airport in Charleston, W.Va., into a wooded area, said Jennifer Herrald, Kanawha County manager.
The plane was operated by Air Cargo Carriers under contract to UPS, said Terri Peterson, a human resources executive at the Milwaukee-based contractor. The accident occurred at about 6:53 a.m., an airport spokesman said. The aircraft had departed Louisville, Ky., at 5:31 a.m.
UPS ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a team of six investigators to the accident scene, spokesman Chris O’Neil said in an e-mail. UPS is attempting to learn more about the situation, a company spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.
The Charleston airport is built on a plateau about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from the city and is as much as 350 feet (107 meters) above the surrounding terrain, according to an NTSB report on a 2010 accident there.
In the previous case, a Bombardier Inc. CRJ-200 regional jet operating as a US Airways Express flight almost went off an embankment at the end of a runway after aborting a takeoff attempt. The plane carrying 34 people was saved from a far more severe outcome by a bed of concrete foam at the end of the runway designed to crush under the weight of the wheels and slow a plane. It stopped the jet before it went over the ledge, according to NTSB.
