Southwest Flight 1455

Accident Report

Cody Dennison
Human Factors
 Outline
Flight History
People Involved
Cause Of Accident, errors
associated
What Can be Done to Prevent
Accident
 Flight History
Boeing 737-3t5 aircraft
from McCarran international airport in Las Vegas to Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena
airport in Burbank California. This flight was on March 5 2000.
crew had been pushed behind schedule due to bad weather. They got to McCarran
airport two hours late so they were in a hurry to get to Pasadena.
The Controller at Pasadena had told them to remain at 230knots on approach and
never verbally took that control off of the crew.
First officer had told the captain that approach speed should be 138 knots but the
captain responded by saying there fine. The controller told us to stay at 230.
The captain was on too steep of a decent angle of 7 degrees when company
procedure was at 3 degrees and the GPWS was going off and the captains
response was its alright and they ended up landing at a speed of 182 k.
Then they over ran the run way and crashed into a city street by a chevron gas
station on Hollywood Way.
BUR Airport

Landed
runway 8
6032ft by
150ft
Intersects
runway 15
and 33
 People Involved

The crew both the captain and first officer were certified to southwest airlines and
FAA standards. Both had no prior airplane accidents both had current driver
licenses and had passed a drug and alcohol test.
The captain Howard Peterson was 52 years old, ATP certified, just had first class
medical Oct 19, 1999 and he was required to have corrective glasses when in
flight, he lived in Las Vegas and was in the air force.
The first officer was 43 years old ATP certified, just got first class medical Oct 18,
1999 with no limits. Lived in SLC Utah and flew f-16 in the air force.
The SCT Woodland controller on duty at the time of the accident, who was also a
private pilot with about 145 hours of flight time, was hired by the FAA in May
1989. in September 1998, he was transferred to SCT. The day of the accident was
the second day of a 5-day work week for the Woodland controller, who was
assigned the 1300-to-2100 shift (NTSB).
 Cause of accident
The crew in this case should have done a go around but they didnt. The first
office noticed that their decent angle was to rapid and speed was to high and told the
captain but the captain perceived everything was still okay so he never took corrective
actions to fix the problem because he never saw that there was a problem. The first
officer saw the problem but since it didnt faze the captain he thought it was okay. So
they went along with what ATC was telling them to do and they landed the plane in a
condition that was not within the company standards and they experienced the
consequence by over running the runway and ending up on an adjacent street by a gas
station and damaging the aircraft and injuring passengers.

This shows that there was a cockpit gradient and the first office had no voice in
what actions to do.
 Errors
The human factors that caused this accident was: macho, resignation,
invulnerability, anti-authority, miscommunication, false representation. All of these
things were shown in this accident and led up to the actual accidents occurrence.
The captain was in a macho attitude and thought nothing bad would
happen to him even though he was going against company policies
and procedures.
The captain and ATC controller was also under invulnerability because
they were placed in an approach that they never should have been in
and they didnt think anything bad could happen.
Anti authority and resignation takes place among the first officer and
captain when the first officer notices the problems and tells the
captain and the captain responds its okay. This is then wear
miscommunication and false representation occurs because the first
officer knows something is wrong but the captain doesnt. and then
the first officer just stops doing anything and the captain still tries to
land the plane.
 Conclusion
The crew should have executed a go-around.
The plane was also almost at max gross weight of 114,000
lbs. and runway 8 was 6,032 feet long and did not have a
1,000-foot runway safety area.
They were also on too steep of a decent angle and too high
of and airspeed for a safe landing.
The NTSB concluded that with the approach the controller
put the flight crew in the only safe option to do was a go
around. When the captain was interviewed after the
accident he said he didnt know why he didnt do a go
around.
 Works cited
"Southwest Airlines Flight 1455." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Oct. 2013.

Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

11, July. "Southwest Pilot Takes Full Blame for Accident at Burbank Airport."

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2001. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

NTSB Report flight 1455. Reports, June 26, 2002. AAB0204. Web 10 Nov. 2013