Fairchild SA227-BC Metro III

(Photo: Eric Bronder.)

Writing this, it's only a couple of days since the tragic accident at Cork airport in Ireland. The cause of the crash will of course take some time for the authoroties to investigate. 




Speculations has been linked to the weather (the plane made to unsucsessful attempts at landing, crashing on the third), and pictures of the wreckage shows one of the planes propellers possibly in the feathered position (indicating that one of the engines might had been shut down or had failed prior to the crash). Of course, we will not know for sure for some time.


The Fairchild SA227-BC Metro III is a plane with a characteristic look, it has been nicknamed "the flying pencil". It has a long an thin airframe, and stands on long, thin undercarriage. The pressurized cabin is quite narrow and has a low ceiling height, and the aircraft has seating up to 19 passengers.


The video below is from a Metro flight from Reykjavik in Iceland, to Kusuluk in Greenland, showing the pilots at work in this special airplane.