AVIATION/ REMEMBERING PACIFIC WESTERN FL314

33 years ago today, PACIFIC WESTERN AIRLINES Flight 314 crashed while landing at Cranbrook Airport in British Columbia, Canada. Of the 49 passengers and crew onboard, 42 were killed in the crash, which happened because of 2 unfortunate errors made by the flight crew and Calgary ATC. On February 11, 1978, Flight 314 was on Scheduled Domestic Boeing 737 Service from Edmonton, AB, to Castlegar Airport, BC, with stops at Calgary, AB, and Cranbrook. The 737 departed Calgary at 12:32pm with 44 passengers and 5 crew members onboard. The aircraft climbed to 20000ft which was reached at 12:38pm. Calgary ATC then reported to the Cranbrook Aeradio station that Flight 314 was underway with an ETA of 1:05pm. At Cranbrook, it was snowing with the visibility reported as 3/4 of a mile, and a radio equipped snow removal vehicle was sweeping the runway. The Aeradio operator at Cranbrook alerted the driver of the vehicle about the incoming aircraft and gave him the ETA of 1:05pm; they both expected the flight would report by the "Skookum Beacon" on a straight-in approach to runway 16, thus giving the vehicle operator about 7 minutes to get off the runway. At 12:46pm, while descending out of 18000ft, Flight 314 contacted Cranbrook Aeradio. 1 minute later the crew were advised that snow removal was in progress. No further transmissions were received from the flight by Aeradio. The 737 passed the Skookum beacon inbound on a straight-in instrument approach, and flew the ILS for runway 16 to touchdown. The aircraft touched down at 12:55pm, some 800 feet from the treshold and reverse thrust was selected. Suddenly the crew noticed the snow plow on the runway. A go-around was initiated by the crew, however 1 of the thrust-reversers didn't fully restow because hydraulic power was automatically cut off at liftoff. The aircraft became airborne prior to the 2000 foot mark, and flew down the runway at a height of 50 to 70 feet, flying over the snow plow. The left engine thrust reverser doors then deployed and the crew rapidly selected the flaps up from 40deg to 15deg. The 737 climbed to 300-400 feet, banked steeply to the left, lost height and side-slipped into the ground to the left of the runway. The aircraft broke up and caught fire, killing 4 of the 5 crew members, and 38 of the 44 passengers. In the end, investigators determined that the ETA of the aircraft, calculated by Calgary ATC, and used by Aeradio for advisory purposes was considerably in error and resulted in a traffic conftict between the arriving aircraft and the snow plow working on the runway. In addition, the flight crew did not report by the Skookum beacon on final approach, as was the normal practice at Cranbrook, thereby allowing the incorrect ETA to remain undetected. Although there were other factors in the crash, investigators believed that if both of these errors had not occurred, the accident may very well have never taken place.