Boeing DHC-8-102 N839EX

Summary

On 16 January 2012 at about 12:00 local time, a Boeing DHC-8-102 registered N839EX, operated by Piedmont Airlines Incorporated, was involved in an accident near Huntington, West Virginia, United States. 36 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

16 January 2012 at 12:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Huntington, West Virginia, United States

Nearest airport

Tri-State Airport (HTS)

Coordinates

38.3669, -82.5586

Aircraft

Boeing DHC-8-102

Registration

N839EX

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Piedmont Airlines Incorporated

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Huntington → Charlotte

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Dawn

NTSB number

ERA12LA147

Nobody was injured.

The inadequate communication among ground crew personnel, which resulted in the airplane’s collision with a deice truck.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the captain and the first officer, they were instructed to taxi the airplane to an unspecified deice area to remove frost from the airframe. As they taxied, a ground crewmember stood by the wing to ensure the airplane’s clearance from another airline’s equipment and signaled thumbs up to the flight crew to indicate when they were clear of the equipment. After taxiing a short distance, the flight crew stopped and awaited further instructions from a ramp agent on the radio for positioning the airplane. Unknown to the flight crew, the deicing team misunderstood the thumbs-up signal to mean that deicing could begin. Consequently, they moved into a position behind the airplane’s left wing and in front of the left horizontal tail. The ramp agent working the radio could not see the airplane from the radio location and, believing it was still at the gate, instructed the flight crew to taxi 50 feet and stop for deicing. The flight crew initiated taxiing and almost immediately felt a bump, colliding with the boom arm of the deice truck. They then stopped the airplane. The deice truck was not equipped for radio communication; therefore, the team’s movement and position could not be coordinated with the other ground personnel or flight crew.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.