A serious accident of puzzling circumstances occurred on the morning of January 2nd with an Embraer Phenom 300 jet at Provo Airport, near the city of Salt Lake City, in the US.
The aircraft, registration N555NR, was taking off to Chino Airport, California, at around 11:35 am (local time), when it crashed a few meters from the ground.
The wings, engines and tail of the business jet became disconnected from the fuselage, which broke apart. Of the four occupants, only the pilot and owner of the aircraft died. One of the survivors was seriously injured while the others are out of danger, including the pilot’s wife, according to local media reports.
At the time of the accident, the airport was covered with snow, which may indicate some influence on what happened. The NTSB and FAA are investigating the case, but have not provided any information on their respective websites.
The ADS-B tracking sites removed the jet’s flight records, but an image shared on a social network shows the sequence of speed and altitude of the aircraft until the crash. The last record indicates a speed of 137 knots and an altitude of 4,625 feet, or about 128 feet above runway level (about 40 meters), although the airport director quoted a height of just 10 feet (3 meters).
Witnesses reported that the aircraft would have rolled and hit the ground when the wings separated. Provo Airport remained closed on Wednesday for recovery of the lighting system on runway 13-31, where the accident occurred.
The Phenom 300 N555NR was manufactured by Embraer in 2015 and has the serial number 505-00327. This was the second accident with the successful Embraer aicraft in less than a week.
On December 28, the Phenom 300 registration N16DF overshot the runway at Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles after landing. None of the seven occupants were injured.
