The two pilots and the observer spent the night at a local hotel, eating a meal and consuming alcohol before retiring at about 2315. Whilst the aircraft was parked remotely at Birmingham overnight, the air temperature, which had been -1☌ on arrival, remained below zero throughout dropping to a minimum of -9☌, at which time the dew point had also been -9☌ but there was no precipitation and the sky remained largely clear until the following morning. It was established that the previous day, the same two-Captain crew and aircraft had arrived at Birmingham at 2039 local time after a 7 hour 40 minute flight from West Palm Beach FL with two passengers after originally departing from Atlanta. A third pilot was on board as an ‘observer’ to gain experience of transatlantic operations. Both pilots had been employed by the operator since 1968 and were qualified as commanders on type for the operator after both obtaining their Challenger 604 type ratings in April 1999. The 58 year-old Captain occupying the left hand seat as PF had an approximate total of 20,000 flying hours of which approximately 800 hours were on type. It was noted that the 51 year-old Captain who was in command of the accident flight and occupying the right hand seat as PM had an approximate total of 10,000 flying hours of which 800 hours were on type. Data relevant to the Investigation were successfully downloaded from the FDR and CVR recovered from the wreckage and a range of eye witness accounts were available. InvestigationĪn Investigation was commenced by the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch ( AAIB).

The crash site whilst the fire was still being extinguished.

Seven ice extreme v2