The Four One Zero Club: The Crash of Flight 3701


Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 was a repositioning (non-revenue) flight operated under the Northwest Airlink brand by Pinnacle Airlines. The aircraft was a Bombardier CRJ-200 (type CL-600-2B19), registration N8396A. The flight took off on October 14, 2004 from Little Rock, Arkansas (LIT), bound for Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota (MSP). On board were only two people: the captain, Jesse Rhodes, and the first officer, Peter Cesarz. There were no passengers. Both pilots were fatally injured. ([turn0search0]turn0search13turn0search15)

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Flight / Accident Sequence

Shortly after departing Little Rock, Arkansas, the pilots requested to climb to 41,000 feet (FL410), which is the maximum certified operating altitude of the CRJ-200, even though their cleared cruise altitude was planned at 33,000 feet. They engaged the autopilot and began climbing. During the climb, the crew made several deliberate pitch-up maneuvers: steep angles, high G-load. The aircraft’s vertical loads, pitch attitudes, and angle of attack increased to unsafe levels. At around 15,000 ft, they executed a maneuver generating about 2.3 G, which induced stall warnings. The climb rate of 500 ft/min above FL380 exceeded the manufacturer’s recommended envelope. ([turn0search13]turn0search12]turn0search1]turn0search2)

As the aircraft approached FL410, airspeed fell to near stall margins (“indicated airspeed barely above stall speed”), and the engines became over-stressed. Automatic anti-stall protections (stick shaker/pusher etc.) activated. The pilots repeatedly overrode the automatic nose-down commands intended to reduce the angle of attack and restore airspeed. Eventually both engines flamed out at high altitude—they lost thrust. The airplane stalled. At about FL38,000 they managed to recover from the stall (nose-down, descent) but still had no engine power. They attempted restarts: “windmill restarts” (using airflow from descent to spin engine cores), attempts via the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), etc. None succeeded because the engine cores had “locked” (core lock) due to thermal conditions and other factors. They descended, declared emergencies late (once both engines were out), looked for diversion airports, but lost altitude steadily. The aircraft crashed into a residential area about 2.5 miles south of Jefferson City Memorial Airport, Missouri. The plane was destroyed; both pilots died. No ground fatalities. ([turn0search0]turn0search13turn0search12]turn0search4])

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Investigation (Key Findings)


	•	The pilots’ decision to climb to the maximum certified altitude (FL410) in an empty CRJ-200, effectively pushing the aircraft to its performance limit (“410 club”).  ￼


	•	Several non-standard pitch-up maneuvers during the climb that were not required for any operational purpose, resulting in excessive angle of attack and high G values.  ￼


	•	Failure to respect performance limitations above FL380, including climb speed guidelines.  ￼


	•	The crew overrode automatic protections (stick-shaker/stick-pusher) that would have commanded nose-down to recover speed, instead maintaining pitch/aoa near stall condition.  ￼

	•	Double engine flame-outs at high altitude when the engines were operating outside safe envelope; excessive temperature/thermal stress especially in engine #2.  ￼


	•	Unsuccessful restart attempts: “windmill restarts” failed because insufficient airspeed was achieved; core lock prevented actual engine core rotation. The APU‐assisted restarts also failed.  ￼


	•	Poor airmanship and deviation from standard operating procedures. Specifically, lack of timely emergency declaration, not communicating with ATC sufficiently early about loss of both engines and available landing sites.


ASN description: https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/322534


Final report: NTSB (https://asn.flightsafety.org/reports/2004/20041014_CRJ2_N8396A.pdf)


Credits goes to Bruce Leibowitz for the first photo (https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/377934).

OTD in 2004, Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701, a Canadair CL-600-2B19 Regional Jet CRJ-200LR, registered as N8396A, crashed into a residential area and broke apart, just 2 miles from the airport in Jefferson City. All 2 pilots died.