Pilot incapacitation at the end of the approach phase might have caused a Brit Air CRJ100 to crash about a mile-and-a-half short of the runway at Brest Guipavas airport in France on June 22. According to the preliminary report by the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile (BEA, the French equivalent of the NTSB), the copilot indicated that the pilot was immobile, both hands on the wheel and staring at the instrument panel during the last seconds before touchdown. The pilot was the only fatality among the three crewmembers and 21 passengers.
The CRJ100 was arriving from Nantes, France, on scheduled flight AF5672. During its approach to Runway 26, it diverged left from the localizer and deviated successively above and below the glideslope, the BEA said. The crash occurred 7,000 feet short of the runway threshold and 1,475 feet left of the localizer. The aircraft contacted the ground with the gear down and stopped after hitting several obstacles. A post-crash fire destroyed the aircraft, though 23 occupants escaped in time. According to the BEA, the pilot died before the fire erupted.
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