Equipment Covered In Snow At Time Of Incident

A vital piece of equipment used to properly orient landing aircraft was inoperable when a Shuttle America regional jet slid off a snow-slicked runway at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport last weekend.

The Cleveland Plains Dealer reports Airport Commissioner Fred Szabo acknowledged the glideslope emitter wasn't working for runway 28 when the Embraer 170 landed Sunday afternoon. As Aero-News reported, the plane skidded off the departure end of the runway, impacted navigational equipment and came to a rest near an airport surface road.

"The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will determine what happened, and if the nonfunctioning navigational aid contributed to the problem," Szabo said. The glideslope emitter was covered with snow, he added.

Tower officials were unable to say where the accident plane touched down on the runway, Szabo added. A heavy snowfall and winds around 20 mph combined to produce near white-out conditions at the time of the accident.

"That information is crucial to determining what happened," Szabo said.

20-year airline pilot Jonathan Regas told the Plains-Dealer the pronounced slope of runway 28 may have also contributed to the accident. The runway elevation drops 29 feet from the approach to the departure ends.

"It's a question that should be raised," Regas said.

Brad Burdette, president of the local chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told the paper planes had landed on the runway all day with no problems.

The incident Sunday recalled an earlier accident at Hopkins. In January 2003, a Continental Express Embraer 145 overran a different runway at CLE, during similar conditions.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.faa.gov