Cherry Point - Cherry Point

On October 16, 1975 at 12:00 AM, Cherry Point - Cherry Point experienced a crash involving Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I, operated by United States Navy - USN, with the event recorded near Cherry Point MCAS (Cunningham Field) North Carolina.

The flight was categorized as training and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

9 people were known to be on board, 9 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 2, passengers on board: 7, passenger fatalities: 7, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Shortly after lift off, a low torque sensing switch failed precipitating an auto feather of an engine. The crew mis-handled the required feathering procedure, allowing the propeller to unfeather and windmill. Subsequently, the crew retracted the flaps. This disabled a spring tab on the rudder which was designed to give additional rudder authority for high power/low airspeed situations. The result of the windmilling propeller and the loss in rudder authority was that V(mca) increased from 101 kts to 138 kts. The airplane rolled inverted and crashed. Witness marks on the operating engine's propeller reportedly indicated that the airplane's speed when it crashed was less than 90 kts. All on board, four crew men, four students and one instructor, were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration 155723, MSN 178, year of manufacture 1967.