Cause & Circumstance: Below Minimums Hard Landing, Part 1

The minimums for the ILS approach to Runway 14 at Republic Airport (FRG) in Farmingdale, New York, are 200 ft. above the runway and 0.75-m visibility. A Raytheon Hawker 800XP crew tried to fly that approach when the visibility was 0.25 mile and almost made it.
 
The approach proceeded normally until the very end. The first officer (FO), who was flying, could not see the runway well enough to know when to flare. The aircraft hit hard; the aircraft was severely damaged and the FO suffered debilitating injuries.
 
The accident points to the difficulty of adjusting expectations after the approach has already been briefed. The two pilots expected the visibility to be 0.75 mile; that’s what was reported on the automatic terminal information service (ATIS). When the visibility dropped after they had commenced the approach, they had to decide quickly to continue or abandon the approach. The Part 91 “look see” logic drew them on.
 
The crew began their duty day at noon on Dec. 20, 2020. They flew six passengers from Westchester County Airport (HPN) to Ocean Reef Club Airport (07FA) in Key Largo, Florida, then flew back to their home base at Farmingdale after stopping at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF) for fuel. The trip to Florida was Part 135; the return was a Part 91 positioning flight. Only the two pilots were aboard. It was the last day of a four-day trip.
 
It was already dark in New York when the flight took off. The Hawker jet, registration N412JA, was fueled to 7,000 lb. at OPF and the planned burn for the 2-hr. and 35-min. flight was 4,081 lb. The captain filed an alternate airport—Teterboro (TEB)—but he expected FRG to be 800 ft. overcast and 6 m. visibility when they arrived. A diversion seemed unlikely. 
 
According to the NTSB, the nearest terminal forecast (TAF) was for JFK airport, 17 nm west of FRG. That forecast was winds variable at 4 kt, 6 m. visibility, few clouds at 700 ft. and a broken deck at 2,500 ft. The New York area forecast said: “patchy fog will have to be monitored closely overnight.”
 
Arriving from the south, the flight was routed by SARDI intersection and Calverton VOR, descending to 7,000 ft. MSL. The two pilots discussed conditions at both TEB and Islip’s Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) and went over the go-around procedure. It was “go around, go around, thrust, flaps 15, positive rate gear up, FMS NAV FLCH.” They discussed the normal minimums for the approach. According to the approach chart, the decision altitude for the ILS-14 was 277 ft., which was 200 ft. above touchdown, and the minimum visibility required was 0.75 mile.
 
At 2018 EST, about 17 min. before landing, the crew tuned and monitored the FRG ATIS. It was: “information X-Ray, 0053Z, winds 040 deg. at 3 kts., visibility 0.75 mile with mist, ceiling 200 ft. overcast, temperature 1 deg. C, dewpoint 0 deg. C, altimeter setting 30.04, runway condition code 5-5-5, 100% wet.”
 
Conditions were worsening.
 
At 2023, New York Approach Control told the flight to expect vectors to the ILS to Runway 14, and the crew set up and briefed the approach. The briefing included a Vref of 117 kt. The likely approach speed was 122 kt.
 
As the pilots neared the localizer, they extended the flaps to 15 deg. At 2031:32 New York Approach said: “Talon flight nine forty one four miles from FRIKK turn left heading one seven zero maintain one thousand six hundred until established on the localizer cleared I-L-S runway one four approach.”
 
After the read back, at 2032:17, New York Approach said: “Talon flight nine forty one contact Republic tower one one eight point eight.” The captain acknowledged and a moment later the FO called for the landing gear down.
 
When the captain checked in with Republic Tower, he reported still outside of FRIKK, the final approach fix. The tower cleared the flight to land. They added “last aircraft uh about five minutes ago reported mins uh bases right at the mins.”
 
The crew extended the flaps to 25 deg. as the glide slope came alive. Just at that moment, the tower said: “uh new weather's comin’ out looks like visibility has dropped a little bit to one-quarter and uh, fog indefinite ceiling two hundred temperature one dewpoint minus one altimeter three zero zero three.”
 
That patchy fog the weather service warned about in its area forecast was arriving.
 
There was about a 10-sec. delay before the captain replied: “understood Talon flight nine forty one.” Then in quick order, the two pilots agreed. The captain said: “all right we’re part ninety one we’re inside the fix,” and “we’ll continue.” The FO concurred but said: “we will be ready to go.” Flaps were set to full.
 
At 2033:33 the FO said: “I’m inside, you’re outside.” The captain agreed and completed the landing checklist except for autopilot and yaw damper. 
 
At 2033:41 an electronic voice driven by the radar altimeter announced “one thousand.” The captain made his own callouts, starting with 500 ft. above the set decision height of 200 ft. AGL. After calling out “one hundred” and at the same time as the electronic voice called out “minimums,” he said at 2034:56, “all right I got lights,” and the FO said, “continuing.”
 
Approach Lighting System

Four seconds later the captain said, “there are the rabbits do you see ‘em?” and “red terminating bar lights,” and the FO said, “landing.”
 
Runway 14’s approach light array, a medium intensity MALSF system, does have three sequenced flashing lights (rabbits), but does not have red terminating bars or, for that matter, any red lights at all. 
 
Passing 100 ft., the captain said, “there’s the runway” and the FO said, “give me lights.” He did not call out seeing anything.
 
The FO disconnected the autopilot as the airplane passed 50 ft. and began reducing engine thrust. As the airplane passed 30 ft., the captain called out “flare, flare, flare,” then “to the left, to the left, you’re sliding!”
 
The airplane was below 20. Ft. when the FO called out “take it, take it.” The captain did not take control of the airplane. He called out “go around go around go around,” and the FO repeated “go around go around thrust flaps 15.” The FO pressed the takeoff/go-around (TO/GA) switch and advanced the thrust levers to full thrust. The command bars came to a nose up position, and engine data later showed the engines spooled up to 90-95% N1, but the airplane continued to sink. The captain recalled that the airspeed was between 110-115 kts.
 
At 2035:27 the airplane impacted the right side of the runway. All three landing gear broke off and the airplane slid off the runway to the right, spinning around and finally stopping about 1,500 ft. beyond the landing point. The captain shut down the engines, made a MAYDAY call on the radio and worked with first responders to evacuate the airplane.

In Below Minimums, Part 2, we describe the accident investigation.