tree, continued for , and struck a group of aspen trees. Finally, the plane collided with two ridges and came to rest inverted and lying on its right side. Investigation At first, icing was considered as a possible cause of the crash. This was later ruled out as a factor by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The cause of the crash was the loss of altitude awareness; this led to a failure to maintain minimum descent altitude for the approach, resulting in an impact with trees and a ridge before the aircraft reached the runway. Falitz was said to have a reputation for following company procedures and being meticulous with flight check lists, but three first officers accused him of being deliberately rough on the flight controls. A chief pilot described Falitz as competent, but prone to outbursts of angereven taking out his anger on an operational plane doing dangerous maneuvers in-flightand intimidating and provocative behavior with colleagues. Falitz was accused of once slapping a co-pilot's headphones in anger. His previous intimidation of first officers was noted by the investigators. The concluding statement from the NTSB report (NTSB/AAR-94/05) provided the following probable cause for the crash of Northwest Airlink Flight 5719: "The captain's actions led to a breakdown in crew coordination and the loss of altitude awareness by the flight crew during an unstabilized approach in night instrument meteorological conditions. Contributing to the accident were: the failure of the company management to adequately address the previously identified deficiencies in airmanship and crew resource management of the captain; the failure of the company to identify and correct a widespread, unapproved practice during instrument approach procedures; and the Federal Aviation Administration's inadequate surveillance and oversight of the air carrier." In popular culture The crash of Northwest Airlink Flight 5719 was covered in "Killer Attitude", a Season 16 (2017) episode of the internationally syndicated Canadian TV documentary series Mayday, also known as Air Disasters and other titles. See also Widerøe Flight 710 Avianca Flight 410 Alitalia Flight 404, another CFIT accident where the crew used poor crew resource management. British European Airways Flight 548 and Kenya Airways Flight 507, other cases where the bully-like attitude of captains led to a breakdown in crew communication. Armavia Flight 967, a case where a captain flew his aircraft onto water after cursing at an air traffic controller. References External links 1993 in Minnesota Airliner accidents