- Date
- August 12, 1991, 11:09 local (16:09 UTC)
- Place
- St Louis, MO
- Injuries
- 7 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N339TEBritish Aerospace 3201
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 2, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19910812033899A
- Case key
- 15197
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Failure of the pilot(s) to follow the correct emergency procedure. Factors related to this accident were: inadequate system design by the manufacturer, which allowed hydraulic line vibration, fatigue failure of the line, and loss of fluid from the normal hydraulic system.
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
Drg flt, a hydr line (pn 137311D1443) in the main hydr sys failed. The capt & 1st officer made numerous atmts to extd the lndg gear by using the emerg checklist & acft flt manual. Two of 3 lndg gear legs were extdd, but the plts were unable to extd the left main lndg gear. Subseqently, the acft was dmgd drg lndg. The hydr line was curved & measured abt 15' fm end to end. It had failed at the base of a flared fitting. This allowed hydr fluid in the main sys reservoir to be pumped overboard. The emerg hydr sys had a 3 psn slctr: normal, flaps down, gear down. Tests of the gear extn sys revealed it worked properly per instrns fm the emerg checklist, but with the slctr in the normal psn, the line failure allowed fluid to be pumped fm the emerg reservoir to the main sys. A metallurgical exam revealed the hydr line had failed fm multiple fatigue origins on the outside diameter of the tube & on diametrically opposite sides. Later, british aerospace issued a svc bulletin (23-JM-8170) to reinforce the hydr line.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N339TE
- Reported as
- British Aerospace 3201
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 935
- Engine
- Garrett TPE 331-12UA, 1,200 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Trans States Airlines, doing business as Trans World Express
- Registered owner
- British Aerospace, Inc.
- Departed
- FSM · Ft Smith, AR
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- STL · Lambert-St Louis Intl, runway 3L, 11,918 × 200 ft, concrete
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
- 28
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 4,200 total · 750 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 70° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 25,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
- Observed at
- STL, 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.