On October 14, 2004, Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 (ICAO: FLG3701, IATA: 9E3701, or Flagship 3701) crashed near Jefferson City, Missouri, while flying from Little Rock National Airport to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Flight 3701 was a repositioning flight with no passengers aboard; both pilots were killed. Federal investigators determined the crash was due to the pilots' unprofessional behavior and disregard for training and procedures. Aircraft and crew Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701, operating under the Northwest Airlink banner, was a repositioning flight of an empty 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 (aircraft registration ). The aircraft was built in 2000 and had accumulated 10,168 hours of flight time and completed 9,613 flight cycles at the time of the crash. On October 14, 2004, a different Pinnacle Airlines flight crew was scheduled to fly the incident aircraft from Little Rock National Airport to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, but this crew received an error message and aborted their take-off. Pinnacle Airlines dispatched maintenance crews to Little Rock to resolve the problem. The problem was identified and fixed. Because the aircraft was needed in Minneapolis the next morning, Flight 3701 was scheduled overnight as a repositioning flight, to move the plane from Little Rock to Minneapolis. The only persons on board Flight 3701 were the two pilots, Captain Jesse Rhodes (31) and First Officer Peter Cesarz (23). Cesarz trained at Gulfstream Academy, and Rhodes trained at Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, both in Florida. Both pilots flew for Gulfstream International Airlines before being hired for Pinnacle Airlines. Rhodes had logged a total of 6,900 flight hours, including 973 hours on the CRJ-200, and Cesarz had 761 hours, with 222 of them on the CRJ-200. Accident Flight 3701 departed Little Rock at 21:21 Central Daylight Time (CDT). The flight plan from Little Rock to Minneapolis indicated a planned cruising altitude of Flight Level (FL) 330, or about . After departing Little Rock, the plane pitched up sharply several times during its ascent, briefly reaching . At 21:35, Flight 3701 requested clearance to climb to , the maximum operating altitude of the Bombardier CRJ series. Clearance was granted by air traffic control (ATC) at 21:36, and the plane climbed to its new cruising altitude shortly thereafter. At 21:54, the pilots began to struggle with control of their plane. Both engines lost power and the plane's stick shaker warned the pilots of an impending stall. The pilots declared an emergency and descended,