Accident Overview
During a landing at the destination airport, a business jet conducting an on-demand air taxi flight with passengers onboard touched down normally, as confirmed by air traffic controllers and airport surveillance video. The thrust reverser deployed, but the airplane continued down the runway without decelerating, eventually overrunning the runway and impacting terrain. The cockpit voice recorder captured the sound of touchdown followed by the pilot and copilot commenting that the brakes were not operating.
Brake System Examination
Postaccident examination of the airplane's brake system revealed discrepancies in the antiskid system. A broken solder joint was found on the left-side inboard transducer, and the wiring on the right-side outboard transducer was reversed. It is likely that these discrepancies caused the normal braking system to fail during the landing.
Maintenance History
Before the accident flight, the airplane had been in long-term storage for several years and was undergoing maintenance to return to a serviceable condition. This work included several inspections, an overhaul of the landing gear, and resolution of over 100 unresolved discrepancies. However, the accident flight and the four previous flights were conducted with only a portion of this required maintenance completed and properly documented in the maintenance logs.
A pilot who flew on the four previous flights with the accident pilot (who acted as second-in-command on those flights) had identified that the normal braking system was not operating when the airplane was traveling faster than 20 knots. He remedied the situation by using the emergency braking system and reported the discrepancy to the operator's director of maintenance. It is likely that maintenance personnel subsequently added an "INOP" placard near the brake selector switch on the date of the accident. The placard referenced the antiskid system, and the airplane's flight manual stated that with the normal brake (or antiskid) system inoperative, the brake selector switch must be positioned to use the emergency braking system.
Following the accident, the switch was found in the position for normal braking activation. It is likely that the accident flight crew attempted to use the malfunctioning normal braking system during the landing instead of properly recognizing the failure and configuring the airplane to use the emergency braking system or the parking brake, as described in the flight manual.
Probable Cause
The official probable cause was: the operator's decision to allow a flight in an airplane with known, unresolved maintenance discrepancies, and the flight crew's failure to properly configure the airplane in a way that would have allowed the emergency or parking brake systems to stop the airplane during landing.