USAir Flight 405 - Flight History

Flight History

The jet involved in the accident was a Fokker F28 Series 4000 airplane manufactured in the Netherlands. A two-engine, medium-range jet, the Fokker F28 is designed for transporting up to 95 passengers. The particular jet involved in the accident was registered in the United States as N458US. It was first delivered to Piedmont Airlines in August 1986, and was acquired by USAir—now named US Airways—three years later in August 1989 when the two airlines merged. N458US had amassed a total of 12,462 flying hours at the time of the accident.

The 44-year old pilot, Captain Wallace J. Majure II, who was fully qualified to pilot the F28 and four other commercial aircraft, had accumulated approximately 9,820 total flying hours, of which 2,200 hours were in the F28. Majure was initially hired as an F28 first officer by Piedmont Airlines in 1985. He was later reassigned to serve as a first officer and then a captain on a Boeing 737, but finally returned to an F28 captain because of company cutbacks. The New York Times reported that:

Majure was a man who yearned to please his passengers, and if he made them happy then he also made his airline happy. He had often spoken to friends about how important it was for him to get travelers to their destinations on time and how proud he was of USAir's on-time record. All the same, he was also portrayed as a by-the-book, cautious pilot.

The first officer, John J. Rachuba, age 30, was hired by Piedmont in 1989. At the time of the accident, company records indicate that he had accumulated approximately 4,507 flying hours, of which 29 hours were in the F28. Rachuba held a flight engineer certificate with ratings for turbojet-powered aircraft and an expired instructor certificate issued on August 16, 1987. He also held an Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) license for non-federal control towers. Previously, he had served as a flight engineer on Boeing 737s and Boeing 727s.