Pilot Errors Caused Deadly Crash

A series of pilot errors, combined with fatigue and a lack of professionalism, caused the deadly crash of a commuter airliner in 2004 in northeast Missouri, federal investigators said Tuesday.

The two-man crew and 11 of 13 passengers aboard Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 were killed in the Oct. 19, 2004, accident — the deadliest civilian air crash in America that year.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the pilot, Capt. Kim Sasse, 48, focused too much on looking outside the cockpit window instead of monitoring flight instruments as the plane approached Kirksville Regional Airport.

Based on a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder, investigators also found that Sasse and his co-pilot, Jonathan Palmer, 29, also "lacked a professional tone" in the cockpit as they constantly traded jokes and casual conversation that distracted them from the flight.

The plane clipped treetops and stalled before crashing in a field short of the runway.

Pilot fatigue also was a factor, Brenner said, as the pilots had been on duty for 14 hours and 41 minutes at the time of the 7:37 p.m. crash. This was the sixth landing of the day in challenging weather for a crew that was on duty around 5:30 a.m.