NTSB: Human error caused Texas cargo plane crash

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled Tuesday that a January 2009 crash of a FedEx cargo plane in Texas was caused by errors made by its flight crew.
 
The captain of the cargo plane was seriously injured and the first officer received minor injuries in the crash.
 
The plane, an ATR 43-320 operated for FedEx by Empire Airlines, crashed in Lubbock, Texas, just before it reached the airport's runway. It had been flying in from Fort Worth.

"During the approach into Lubbock, at about 1,400 feet above the ground and about 90 seconds from the runway, the captain indicated a flight control problem saying, 'We have no flaps,'" the NTSB said in a statement about its findings.
 
"Although the crewmembers had been trained to perform a go-around and refer to a checklist if a flap problem occurred during an approach, the captain chose to continue the approach as he attempted to troubleshoot the flap anomaly while the first officer flew the plane. Neither flight crewmember adequately monitored the airspeed, which decayed to the extent that the stick shaker activated, which warned of an impending aerodynamic stall."
 
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said the investigation showed the importance of proper flight crew training.
 
"We know that flight crews can find themselves in dynamic situations, like the one in this accident, where they have to make rapid decisions often within seconds," Hersman said in a statement. "These high workload and high stress situations often manifest at the end of long days, long nights or in bad weather, which is why following established procedures and using good crew resource management is critical."