- Date
- November 20, 1991, 13:43 local (19:43 UTC)
- Place
- Chicago, IL
- Injuries
- 1 minor, 21 uninjured
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N235RMAerospatiale ATR-42-300
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 5, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19911120062039I
- Case key
- 15319
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
An inflight encounter with wake turbulence during cruise flight.
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
The incident airplane encountered vortex turbulence while following radar vectors for landing sequence. The airplane was not damaged. A flight attendant sustained minor injuries during the encounter. The airplane was operating in a terminal control area under positive radar control. FAA records and radar track data show a like category airplane was approximately 4 nautical miles in front of the incident airplane when it descended to and maintained the same altitude as the incident airplane. The incident airplane was proceeding along approximately the same ground track as the lead airplane and encountered the turbulence near the point the lead airplane leveled at the same altitude. At the time of the encounter the lateral separation of the two airplanes was 4.6 nautical miles. The minimum ATC separation in a radar environment when the aircraft are within 40 nautical miles of the radar antenna is three nautical miles.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N235RM
- Reported as
- Aerospatiale ATR-42-300 (ATR42-300)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 235
- Engine
- P&W PW120, 1,800 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- Simmons Airlines Inc., doing business as American Eagle
- Registered owner
- Gpa Atr II Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Unknown · January 2, 2000
- Departed
- SBN · South Bend, IN
- Flight plan
- IFR
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 42
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Unknown
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 10,337 total · 2,018 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 360° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 11,000 ft broken
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ORD, 15 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.