The FAA has taken the dramatic step of ordering immediate inspections of 45 aircraft serviced at the same facility that performed maintenance on Air Midwest's ill-fated Flight 5481. Recent data harvested from the doomed aircraft's Flight Data Recorder points to work done on the aircraft's horizontal stab and elevator as possibly causal in the accident that killed 21 people on Wednesday, while departing Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. The aircraft took off normally and assumed a proper 7 degree deck angle for the initial climb... but quickly pitched up to 52 degrees, a wholly unsafe attitude, before rolling left and descending to impact. The entire flight time was estimated at 37 seconds.

The NTSB investigation, led by John Goglia, seems to be closing in quickly on a possible cause for the recent tragedy. According to Goglia, "...we do know that the elevator tab was replaced and that would require cable tensions to be readjusted. Those are significant events for the flight control system of this aircraft."

"We need to know what procedures were followed," reported Goglia. "Was the procedure valid? Did this facility and these people perform any similar maintenance on any other airplanes in the last few weeks? We're going to look at that in great detail."

Air Midwest Statement

Shortly after we first reported this story, we received the following info... "Air Midwest tonight began the immediate inspection of the elevator controls on three Raytheon/Beech 1900D aircraft. These three aircraft had undergone similar maintenance checks at the Raytheon Aerospace, LLC facility in Huntington, West Virginia as the aircraft involved in Wednesday's accident. Air Midwest expects to complete these inspections by Friday morning.

As an added precaution, Air Midwest has elected to inspect the elevator controls on its entire fleet of forty-three Raytheon/Beech 1900D aircraft. These inspections will be conducted over the next 72 hours.

'We are moving proactively with an abundance of caution and prudence in the best interests of safety,' said Mesa Air Group Chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein. 'We continue to coordinate efforts with the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration.'"

The statement, issued via a PR Service, did not make mention of the fact that the inspections were actually ORDERED by the FAA...

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov, www.mesa-air.com