On May 15, 2017, a Learjet 35A business jet operated by Trans-Pacific Air Charter crashed while on approach to Teterboro Airport, killing both pilots, the only two occupants on board.

The aircraft, flying a repositioning flight from Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, was flying a circle-to-land approach to land on Runway 1 when it stalled and crashed into a commercial building and a parking lot.

The investigation, conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board, determined several factors that led to the crash.

The captain of the flight allowed the underqualified first officer to be the pilot flying, which was directly against company procedures.

During the circle-to-land maneuver — which was conducted on an unstabilized approach and not in guidance with air traffic control instructions – the captain was focused on aligning the aircraft with the runway rather than indications in the cockpit that showed the airspeed was too slow.

Frost was the director of operations, charter coordinator, safety officer, and spokesman of Trans-Pacific at the time of the accident.

[2] The aircraft was registered to Montana-based A&C Big Sky Aviation, but was operated by Trans-Pacific Air Charter.

In November 2015, D&D Aviation rehired Ramsey, but he only stayed with the company until December 2015 due to a failure to renew his contract.

During a simulator training session, Alino's instructor noted several deficiencies in his performance, which included not knowing how to perform takeoff checks, not knowing how to start the engines, crashing on takeoff due to incorrect flight director settings, and crashing on landing during approach.

[1][3] The pilots were not required to fly to Teterboro as a result, but decided that they would stay in a hotel in New York rather than in Philadelphia.

[1] As First Officer Alino was rated as an SIC-0, he was not allowed to be the pilot flying, and Captain Ramsey giving the controls over to him was a violation of Standard operating procedures.

Shortly after, the captain instructed the first officer to control basic flight parameters, including altitude and airspeed.

This was an incorrect statement by the captain, as when he made this comment to the first officer, the aircraft was only 48 nmi (55 mi) away from Teterboro.

After they properly intercepted the localizer for Runway 6, Ramsey continued to instruct Alino on how to manage the engine power levers and the airspeed.

[1][10] Whilst setting up the flight management system (FMS), ATC instructed the crew to fly to VINGS, a waypoint on the localizer path for Runway 6.

The aircraft passed TORBY at 1,500 ft (460 m) and instead of starting the circle-to-land maneuver, it continued to fly towards Runway 6.

Soon after at 15:29:18, the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) issued an aural "five hundred" feet altitude alert, followed three seconds later by "sink rate, pull up!"

At this time, the bank angle had increased to 35° to the left and the airspeed had fallen to 111 kn (128 mph).

[1][9] The right wingtip of the aircraft impacted a commercial building which was shortly followed by N452DA crashing into a parking lot.

The wreckage of the aircraft was distributed along a 315 ft (96 m) long debris path 0.43 nmi (0.49 mi) south of Runway 1, which damaged or destroyed three buildings and sixteen vehicles.

This task, which was non-standard and against policy at Trans-Pacific, degraded the captain's situational awareness of the flight.

The crew's reaction of confusion to being given a circle-to-land approach and their failure to clarify this instruction with the controller would likely have been prevented if they conducted a proper pre-flight briefing.

[10] During the circle-to-land maneuver, the pilots disregarded multiple warnings from the EGPWS and the angle of attack (AOA) indicator inside the cockpit.

[1] The pilot's lack of adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs) was also addressed in the final report.

Commenting on three accidents that occurred between 2014 and 2018 that also involved violations of SOPs, the NTSB showed that Trans-Pacific, along with FAR part 135 operators in general, did not have the proper resources to monitor and detect pilots that have deficiencies.

[10][1] At the time of the crash, Trans-Pacific did not have an FDM or any formal safety programs to report poor pilot performance.

Additionally, the FAA's lack of oversight on Trans-Pacific failed to detect their pilot's non-compliance with SOPs.

Also contributing to the accident were Trans-Pacific's lack of safety programs that would have enabled the company to identify and correct patterns of poor performance and procedural noncompliance and the FAA's ineffective SAS procedures, which failed to identify these company oversight deficiencies.

[12][1]: 55 In July 2018, a company who had property significantly damaged by the crash, filed a lawsuit against Trans-Pacific and A&C Big Sky Aviation.