IBC Airways Flight 405
IBC Airways Flight 405 was a regularly scheduled international cargo flight from Las Américas International Airport, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, Puerto Rico. On December 2, 2013, the Fairchild SA227-AC Metro III crashed near after a suffering a structural failure, killing the two crew members on board.
Background
Aircraft
The involved aircraft was a Fairchild SA227-AC Metro III built in 1985 and registered as AC-654B. IBC Airways bought the aircraft from Aircraft Consultans Inc. on 29 March 1999. Three days before the accident the aircraft accumulated 33883.4 total hours.Crew
Aboard the aircraft there was a crew of two, consisting of a captain and a first officer. The 35-year-old captain had 1,740 hours of flying experience, of which 686 hours had been on the same make and model as the crashed. The 28-year-old first officer had only recently started working for the airline and had 1,854 hours of flying experience with 92 hours on the Fairchild SA227-AC Metro III.Flight timeline
The aircraft took off at 19:36 local time from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The last radio contact with the flight occurred around 20:08, as the aircraft was descending from 11,000 feet to 7,000 feet. At that time, air traffic control instructed the crew to maintain an altitude of 3,000 feet until reaching the"TNNER" waypoint and to prepare for an ILS approach. The crew acknowledged the instruction. This was the last communication between air traffic control and the aircraft.By 20:10:08, the aircraft had descended to 8,300 feet and began a 20-degree left turn. By 20:10:13, it had descended further to 7,300 feet and then initiated a 45-degree right turn. At 20:10:18, the aircraft had descended to 5,500 feet. Calculations later showed that the aircraft had descended at a rate of 12,000 feet per minute between 20:10:08 and 20:10:13, and at a rate of 21,000 feet per minute during the following five seconds.