Crash pilot shut down the wrong engine, inquiry told

An executive jet crash that killed eight people was caused by the pilot's error – switching off the wrong engine in response to a mid-air emergency, an inquiry concluded yesterday.

The Cessna 404, carrying nine Airtours staff from Glasgow to Aberdeen, nosedived into the ground close to the airport just minutes after take-off on 3 September 1999.

Five stewardesses, the pilot and co-pilot and an Airtours pilot travelling as a passenger were killed when the plane burst into flames.

Three other staff members survived the crash after being pulled from the wreckage by a man who was working near by.

Yesterday, more than three years after the accident, a fatal accident inquiry at Paisley Sheriff Court concluded Captain John Easson, proprietor of Edinburgh Air Charter, which owned the plane, realised one of the engines had malfunctioned, but was unable to tell which one. Possibly confused by a noise in the working engine, Captain Easson, described as a "highly experienced and proficient pilot", made the decision to close down the faulty engine and attempt to return to Glasgow airport.

But, the inquiry was told, a bang heard in the re-conditioned right-hand engine on take-off may have misled Captain Easson. It was the left-hand engine that had failed because a tooth in the gearing mechanism had sheared off.

Without power, the plane nosedived into the ground from a height of 200ft. Captain Easson, 49, from Bride, Isle of Man, was killed instantly alongside his co-pilot, father-of-four Bill Henderson, 54, of Lower Fargo, Fife.

The six passengers who died, Airtours stewardesses Pauline MacIver, 31, from Stevenston, Ayrshire; Pauline Moyes, 38, from Renton, West Dunbartonshire; newly-wed Linda Taylor, 29, from Troon, Ayrshire; Helen Steven, 28, from Helensburgh, Argyll & Bute; Lynn McCulloch, 25, from Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire and Airtours pilot Colin Finnie, 32, from Irvine, North Ayrshire, were on their way to join a passenger flight from Aberdeen to Majorca when the accident happened.

Sheriff Principal Bruce Kerr QC stopped short of blaming Captain Easson outright for the crash and said the pilot's mistake had been prompted by "a coincidence of conflicting signals or indications".

He said: "Circumstances conspired against Captain Easson and his passengers with the consequence that all his great experience and proficiency proved inadequate to save them from death or injury. There were no reasonable precautions whereby the deaths and the aircraft accident might have been avoided."

However Sheriff Kerr said Captain Easson ought to have considered a controlled landing in a field rather than trying to return to the airport. Sheriff Kerr called for the introduction of cockpit voice recorders in all aircraft regardless of their size.

"It is highly probable, indeed almost certain, we would all have known immeasurably more about this accident had there been a cockpit voice recorder on board," he said.

Ivie Finnie, the father of Airtours pilot Colin Finnie, said the report offered little insight into why Airtours allowed staff to travel in an aircraft such as the Cessna 404, yet did not take their passengers on similar planes.