Accident
Flight 529 left the ramp area at Atlanta at 12:10, and took off at 12:23. The Captain of the flight was Ed Gannaway and the First Officer was Matt Warmerdam. At 12:43:25, while climbing through 18,100 feet, the occupants of the aircraft heard a thud which First Officer Warmerdam later described as sounding like "a baseball bat striking an aluminum trash can." One of the blades of the Hamilton Standard propeller on the left engine had failed and the entire assembly had become dislodged, deforming the engine nacelle and distorting the wing's profile.
Although the EMB 120, like all transport-category multi-engine airplanes, is designed to fly with one engine inoperative, the distortion of the engine resulted in excessive drag and loss of lift on the left side of the aircraft, causing it to rapidly lose altitude.
The flight crew initially tried to return to Atlanta for an emergency landing but the rapid descent resulted in them being diverted to West Georgia Regional Airport. The airplane was unable to stay in the air long enough and the pilots began searching for an open space to make a crash landing on the aircraft's belly. At 12:52:45 the airplane struck the tops of the trees and crashed into a field in Carroll County, Georgia near the farming community of Burwell and the city of Carrollton.
Read more about this topic: Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 529
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