- Date
- March 23, 1993, 06:50 local (11:50 UTC)
- Place
- Rochester, NY
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N496UEBritish Aerospace BAE3201
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 3, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19930323010009I
- Case key
- 11877
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
On this page
Probable cause
Failure of the main cabin door to be adequately secured for flight for an unknown REAS0N.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
According to the pilot, after the main cabin door was closed by ramp personnel, he had a door ajar warning light on the cap panel. He reported he had flown the subject aircraft for four legs the previous day and a similar situation occurred on three of those legs, so he pulled the circuit breaker and reset it after 10 seconds. The door light was extinguished, and the pilots proceeded to takeoff. During the climb, while passing through 4000 feet above the ground, a popping sound was heard followed by a rapid decompression. The pilots noted that the main cabin door was ajar, but for safety reasons, they did not go to inspect the door. The pilots slowed the airplane to 130 knots indicated airspeed, and after landing, they noted the door had separated from the aircraft. Search efforts were made and the door was located in a field along the path of the flight. The door was flown to scotland for further examination at jetstream aircraft limited; however, the examination did not disclose evidence of mechanical malfunction.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N496UE
- Reported as
- British Aerospace BAE3201
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 900
- Airframe hours
- 3,144
- Engine
- Garrett TPE-331-124AR, 1,020 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Atlantic Coast Airlines, doing business as United Express
- Registered owner
- Atlantic Coast Airlines
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · March 12, 1993 · 61 hours before
- Departed
- BUF · Buffalo, NY
- Flight plan
- IFR
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 49
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 4,670 total · 2,600 in this make and model · 4,200 as pilot in command · 210 in the last 90 days · 48 in the last 30 days · 6 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 25,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 27 °F, dew point 19 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ROC, 1 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.