The tragic last words of one of the pilots killed in the crash of a cargo plane in Houston contracted by Amazon earlier this year were, “Lord, you have my soul,” according to a chilling transcript of the cockpit voice recorder.
Capt. Ricky Blakely, First Officer Conrad Jules Aska and Mesa Airlines Capt. Sean Archuleta, who was riding in the jump seat, were killed Feb. 23 when the Boeing 767 operated by Atlas Air plunged into Trinity Bay.
Seconds after air traffic controllers rerouted the aircraft around some precipitation, the crew began losing control on approach to Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Aska, who had a record of repeatedly flunking flight tests, may have mistakenly thought the jet was stalling when its nose was pointed too high, so he jerked it down as the captain fought to pull up, according to the Nation Transportation Safety Board report.
He added full takeoff power without telling Blakely, resulting in pandemonium in the cockpit, according to the report.
“Whoa, (where’s) my speed, my speed,” Aska said, according to the transcript released by the National Transportation Safety Bureau. “We’re stalling. Stall.”
Several thumping sounds could be heard in the cockpit as the plane plummeted 6,200 feet at an airspeed of 433.5 knots (499 mph) with the autopilot engaged before the flight data recorder stopped working.
“Oh Lord, have mercy on myself,” Aska said seconds before impact as Archuleta yells for the pilots to pull up.
“Lord, you have my soul,” Aska then says right before the plane slams into the marshy bay, scattering packages and debris across a wide swath.
A distress call was never made from the doomed flight.
NTSB investigators and a member of the recovery team retrieve the flight data recorder of Atlas Air Flight 3591.APThe NTSB, which released 2,279 pages of raw investigative reports, stopped short of providing formal conclusions about the cause of the accident.
But the agency did address a possible inadvertent activation of a “go around” switch that turns off the autopilot, as well as the co-pilot’s training issues.
Aska did not list his entire employment history when he was hired at Atlas Air, omitting two jobs with Air Wisconsin and CommutAir that ended after he couldn’t complete the training.
The director of training told investigators that “with that information ‘we would not have offered him a position’ based on the (co-pilot’s) failure to disclose that information on his application,” KHOU reported.
Emergency personnel work at the scene of a plane crash site in Trinity Bay in Anahuac, Texas.APHe also failed his practical exam when he was first hired at Atlas — and had left a prior job with Mesa Airlines when he was unable to upgrade to captain after two unsatisfactory simulator sessions.
Atlas, a division of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc., told Time magazine in a statement that it is cooperating with the NTSB’s probe.
“We remain devastated by the loss of Flight 3591 that claimed the lives of two of our valued pilots and a colleague,” the company said. Atlas’ training and workforce “meet or exceed all government safety standards,” it added.
