Full-scale CRJ2 Jetliner crashes in Jefferson City, Missouri, on October 14, 2004

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A Canadian-built Canadair Regional Jet CRJ2 Full-scale Airliner belonging to Pinnacle Airlines crashed at 10:15 P.M. on October 14, 2004, in a residential area on the east side of Jefferson City while attempting to make an emergency landing at the Jefferson City Memorial Airport after reporting problems with both engines. Two pilots, and the only occupants of the aircraft; Captain Jesse Rhodes and First Officer Richard Peter Cesarz, were both killed in the crash. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to their families & fellow employees.

The National Transportation Safety Board arrived the next morning to investigate the crash. The Jefferson City News Tribune ran several articles in the paper and which were also featured on the internet via their website. Some of the articles may still be available by searching their website.

News Tribune Chief Photographer, Julie Smith, was one of the first people on the scene and one of the few who gained access to the scene before the site was secured. She took the night-time photo of the aft section of the fuselage with a firefighter looking inside. This is the area of a CRJ2 where the black boxes are stored.

News Tribune Photographer, Shaun Zimmerman, took the remaining photos (all shown below, click on thumbnails to view larger versions of the photos) of the scene well after the crash investigation was underway. Some of the photos show the engines being hauled away for further investigation since engine failure appears to be a major factor in the fatality crash they are paying particularly close attention to them. Biohazard crews combed meticulously through the wreckage and had major parts removed to conduct their search, after which two black body bags were taken off the site and the NTSB later stated that the bodies of the pilots had been recovered. The airplane debris may remain in place for another week before the investigators allow it to be cleared away and displaced families can the return to their homes.

The jet was being flown from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a transfer flight therefore no further crew members or passengers were on-board the 50-seat airplane. Reports now indicate that around 9:55 P.M., nearly 35 minutes after the plane took off, both engines failed while the aircraft was at an altitude of 41,000 ft. at which time the jetliner experienced an aerodynamic stall and the plane rapidly descended to 34,000 ft. where the pilots regained full control of the jet. The powerless plane then continued to descend at 1,000 ft. per minute while the pilots made numerous attempts to get the engines to start again. At 9,000 ft. (the last radio contact with the flight crew) they were instructed to attempt an emergency landing at the Jefferson City Airport where the pilot reportedly could see the airport beacon. The Jefferson City Fire Department had already been dispatched to the airport and firefighters were already at the airport when the 911 calls started coming in at 10:15 P.M. to report the crash in a residential area on the east side of Jefferson City, near Hutton Lane.

Miraculously and likely - heroically - the pilots managed to avoid directly hitting any residences! Just 20 feet in either direction could have resulted in a much greater loss of life had the aircraft hit any of the homes. Some suggest that when the pilots realized they weren't going to make it to the airport, they may have decided to try to land on U.S. Highway 50/63, but instead they put the craft into the ground in a wooded area behind a row of houses, sparing many lives, except their own. Carol Carmody of the NTSB said; "It takes us many months to find a cause (of the crash)." She also said; "There's no evidence of an in-flight fire, the fire that occurred was after impact" and there was no clear indication as to why the engines failed.

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A pilot aboard a doomed regional jet told an air traffic controller moments before an October crash that he and his co-pilot "decided to have a little fun" by flying at the plane's maximum altitude.

An emergency landing was attempted, but the plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in Jefferson City, killing Capt. Jesse Rhodes and First Officer Richard Peter Cesarz.

There were no passengers on the plane and no one on the ground was injured.

Cockpit transcripts the St. Louis Post-Dispatch obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration describe the rapid descent of the Pinnacle Airlines Corp. plane after it lost engine power on Oct. 14.

Federal investigators said shortly after the crash that they were studying whether altitude contributed to the loss of engine power in the 50-seat plane affiliated with Northwest Airlines.

The problem is first hinted at in the transcripts when an air traffic controller in Kansas City told the pilots it was was rare to see the plane flying at an altitude of 41,000 feet.

"Yeah, we're actually . . . we don't have any passengers on board, so we decided to have a little fun and come up here," one of the pilots said. The transcripts don't identify whether Rhodes or Cesarz made the statement.

But the pilot soon told air traffic controllers that the CRJ2 wouldn't remain at that altitude for long.

"I don't think he had enough gas up there; he was so slow," one air traffic controller said.

The transcripts then describe the conversations between the pilots and the air traffic controllers as the first engine loses power followed by the second engine at 13,000 feet.

"We're going to need a little lower to start this other engine up, so we're going to go down to about 12 or 11. Is that cool?" the pilot said.

A few moments later, he reported double engine failure, according to the transcripts.

The last contact that air traffic controllers had with the plane was at 9,000 feet, when the pilot reported an airport beacon in sight.

Earlier that day, the jet had aborted a scheduled flight with passengers from Little Rock, Ark., after an indicator light went on for part of its bleed-air system. The system pulls hot, compressed air from the engines to heat other components of the plane. An airplane indicator light signaled a potential problem with the bleed-air sensing loop, which uses heat to determine if air is leaking from the engine.

The plane's loop was replaced before it took off for Minneapolis with just the crew.

Phil Reed, Pinnacle's vice president of marketing, said he was unable to comment because the National Transportation Safety Board precludes him from doing so.

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