Federal investigators determined the crash was due to the pilots' unprofessional behavior and disregard for training and procedures.

[1]: 2  After departing Little Rock, the airplane pitched up sharply several times during its ascent, briefly reaching a climb rate of 10,000 feet per minute (51 m/s).

[1]: 2 At 21:35, Flight 3701 requested clearance to climb to 41,000 feet (12,497 m), the maximum operating altitude of the Bombardier CRJ series.

[1]: 2  Air traffic control commented about the unusual altitude and the captain replied, "we don't have any passengers on board so we decided to have a little fun and come on up here.

The accident sequence started when the pilots performed several nonstandard maneuvers at 15,000 feet (4,600 m), including a pitch-up at 2.3 g (23 m/s2) that induced a stall warning.

In the attempt to reach FL410, the airplane was pulled up at more than 1.2 g, and the angle of attack became excessive to maintain climb rate in the thinner upper atmosphere.

After reaching FL410, the airplane was cruising at 150 knots (170 mph; 280 km/h) indicated airspeed, barely above stall speed, and had over-stressed the engines.

The airplane's antistall devices activated while they were at altitude, but the pilots repeatedly overrode the automatic nose-down that would increase speed to prevent stall.

This caused the pilots to pitch nose down in an attempt to restart the engines, which requires a dive sharp enough to attain the required 300 knots (350 mph; 560 km/h) airspeed for a windmill restart to make the blades in the turbines windmill at 10% N2 (turbine rotational speed).

Since they were too high for an auxiliary power unit (APU) start, the ram air turbine (known as an "air-driven generator" on Bombardier products) was deployed to provide electric power for the aircraft, and the crew donned oxygen masks, as the cabin slowly depressurized due to loss of pressurization air from the engines.

On January 9, 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board issued its final report on Flight 3701, which concluded that the probable causes of the accident were: Thomas Palmer, the former manager of Pinnacle Airlines' training program, said about the crash: "It's beyond belief that a professional air crew would act in that manner.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Transportation Safety Board.