- Date
- September 8, 1989, 21:33 local (Sep 9, 1989, 02:33 UTC)
- Place
- Kansas City, MO
- Injuries
- 65 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N283AUBoeing 737-200A
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report October 7, 1992
- Report
- Board-adopted at Board Meeting
- Investigation class
- Class 1
- NTSB office
- Major Investigations Division
- Safety recommendations
- Yes
- FAA report
- 19890908066609I
- Case key
- 15913
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
The flightcrew's failure to adequately prepare for and execute a nonprecision approach and their subsequent premature descent below minimum descent altitude. Contributing to the cause of the incident was the inadequate and deficient services provided to the flightcrew by air traffic control personnel.
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
During a localizer back course approach to rwy 27 the airplane collided with four electronic transmission cables, located 75 ft AGL, aprx 7,000 ft short of the runway. The crew executed a missed apch & landed uneventfully in salina, KS. The safety board found that the crew did not adequately review apch charts. First officer misidentified lights on ground which influenced capt's subsequent misidentification. ATC failed to provide accurate wx to the crew, failed to vector the airplane to join the localizer outside the final apch fix and committed other errors in handling the flight. An FAA inspector, conducting an en route inspection of the flight, did not inform the crew of the errors they were committing in the planning and execution of the apch. Crew did not execute missed approach when they encountered full-scale localizer deflection inside the final apch fix. (NTSB/AAR-90/04)
Aircraft
- Registration
- N283AU
- Reported as
- Boeing 737-200A
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 283AU
- Airframe hours
- 17,045
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-15, 15,500 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- Usair, doing business as Usair
- Registered owner
- Usair
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · June 8, 1989 · 10 hours before
- Departed
- PIT · Pittsburgh, PA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- MCI · Kansas City Int'L, runway 27, 9,500 × 150 ft, asphalt
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
- 40
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Airline transport, Commercial, Flight engineer
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Unknown
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 14,300 total · 2,000 in this make and model · 110 in the last 90 days · 62 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 250° at 22 knots, gusting 39
- Lowest ceiling
- 500 ft
- Temperature
- 72 °F, dew point 70 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MCI, 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.