He also flew the Beechcraft King Air in Europe, as well as the Airbus A320 for United Airlines (as a first officer).

In the Navy, he flew the Raytheon T-1 Jayhawk, Boeing E6 Mercury and Beechcraft C-12 Huron.

[1]: 1  At 17:23 PDT the flight was cleared for take-off from runway 21 and the crew were instructed to turn left to 160° after departure.

Even with full right aileron and rudder, the plane started to descend and drift to the left.

The captain lowered the nose and leveled the wings, which was followed by the plane making multiple contacts with the runway.

After touchdown, the plane drifted left and departed the runway, crossing a taxiway before coming to rest in a saltwater marsh.

[7] According to Boeing, there were 45 reported midspar fitting cracks, including 3 engine separations prior to the incident.

Between 1975 and 1993 a series of Boeing service bulletins and FAA airworthiness directives were published to address the midspar cracks.

When the fittings were eventually replaced with ones with larger radii in critical areas, the inspections were terminated.

Omega conducted visual inspections from 1996 to 2003, when a records review found that the fittings were replaced by the plane's previous operator in 1983.

Also causal was an erroneous maintenance entry made by a previous aircraft owner, which incorrectly reflected that the newer fitting had been installed.