The crew experienced difficulty establishing the glideslope to Runway 5 and discussed minimum decision heights and missed approach procedures immediately before the aircraft impacted a heavily wooded ridge approximately 7.5 miles north of the Anniston airport in conditions of fog and low-lying clouds.

[2] Following the crash on Stanley Hill[3] approximately 150 yards inside the southeast boundary of Fort McClellan, the survivors exited the airplane as a fire developed.

Dennis Lachut of Fort Lewis, Washington, limped three miles from the crash site through steep, wooded terrain and was taken to a nearby residence by the driver of a passing pickup truck.

Rescuers arrived on foot about 2:15 p.m. and evacuated the remaining survivors by four-wheel-drive vehicle to Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center in Anniston.

Though critical of the performance of the flight crew, the report ultimately concluded that the probable cause was the failure of senior management of GP Express to provide adequate training and operational support for the startup of the southern operation, which resulted in the assignment of an inadequately prepared captain with a relatively inexperienced first officer in revenue passenger service and the failure of the flight crew to use approved instrument flight procedures, which resulted in a loss of situational awareness and terrain clearance.