Thomson, Georgia October 5, 2021, 05:44 Local

“On October 5, 2021, at 0544 eastern daylight time, a Dassault Falcon 20C airplane, N283SA,
was destroyed when it impacted terrain near the Thomson-McDuffie County Airport (HQU),
Thomson, Georgia. The captain and first officer were fatally injured. The airplane was operated
as Pak West Airlines Flight 887 dba Sierra West Airlines, as an on-demand cargo flight under
the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 135.”

“The captain and first officer were assigned a two-leg overnight on-demand cargo flight. The
flight crew were accustomed to flying night cargo flights, had regularly flown together, and
were experienced pilots. The first leg of the trip was uneventful and was flown by the captain;
however, their trip was delayed 2 hours and 20 minutes at the intermediate stop due to a delay
in the freight arriving. The flight subsequently departed with the first officer as the pilot flying. While enroute, about forty minutes from the destination, the flight crew asked the air traffic controller about the NOTAMs for the instrument landing system (ILS) instrument approach
procedure at the destination. The controller informed the flight crew of two NOTAMs: the first
pertained to the ILS glidepath being unserviceable and the second applied to the localizer
being unserviceable. When the controller read the first NOTAM, he stated he did not know what
“GP” meant, which was the abbreviation for the glideslope/glidepath on the approach. The
controller also informed the flight crew that the localizer NOTAM was not in effect until later in the morning after their expected arrival, which was consistent with the published NOTAM.
The flight crew subsequently requested the ILS approach and when the flight was about 15
miles from the final approach fix, the controller cleared the flight for the ILS or localizer
approach, to which the captain read back that they were cleared for the ILS approach. As the
flight neared the final approach fix, the captain reported that they had the airport in sight; he cancelled the instrument flight rules flight plan, and the flight continued flying towards the runway. The airplane crossed the final approach fix off course, high, and fast.”

“Instead of performing a go-around and acknowledging the unstable approach conditions, the
captain instructed the first officer to use the air brakes on final approach to reduce the altitude
and airspeed. Shortly after this comment was made, the captain announced that they were low
on the approach and a few seconds later the captain announced that trees were observed in
their flight path. The CVR captured sounds consistent with power increasing; however, the
audible stall warning tone was also heard. Subsequently, the airplane continued its descent
and impacted terrain about .70 nautical mile from the runway.”

“The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The flight crew’s continuation of an unstable dark night visual approach and the captain’s
instruction to use air brakes during the approach contrary to airplane operating limitations,
which resulted in a descent below the glide path, and a collision with terrain. Contributing to
the accident was the captain’s poor crew resource management and failure to take over pilot
flying responsibilities after the first officer repeatedly demonstrated deficiencies in flying the airplane, and the operator’s lack of safety management system and flight data monitoring
program to proactively identify procedural non-compliance and unstable approaches.”

Source NTSB https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket?ProjectID=104047