- Date
- December 12, 1985, 19:21 local (Dec 13, 1985, 01:21 UTC)
- Place
- College Station, TX
- Injuries
- 2 fatal, 1 serious
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Initial climb
- Aircraft
- N723GLGates Learjet 35A
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19851212061709A
- Case key
- 21879
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
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 acft rolled to the right and crashed after a catastrophic (uncontained) failure of the rt eng during takeoff for a night flt. The rt eng fan rotor disc separated from the hub which damaged the cowling and some disc fragments buried in the fuselage but without damage to the flt controls. The drag created by the loss of thrust and the distorted cowling led to yaw and roll with loss of control of the acft. The fan failure propagated from a low grade fatigue crack on the high time fan which was not detected by the visual inspection procedures existing at the time. The maunufacturer has since improved the manufacturing and inspection techniques. An AD 86-04-02 was issued on 2/14/86 which deals with fan removal from service according to an operating cycle schedule.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N723GL
- Reported as
- Gates Learjet 35A
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 35-107
- Airframe hours
- 8,963
- Engine
- Garrett TFE-731-2-2B, 3,500 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Executive/Corporate · Part 91
- Registered owner
- General Telephone Co. S.W.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Unknown · November 5, 1985 · 121 hours before
- Destination
- HOU · Houstin, TX
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- CLL · Easterwood, runway 28, 5,161 × 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
- 43
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Right
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 20,500 total · 4,000 in this make and model · 260 in the last 90 days · 24 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 320° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 6 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 900 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 36 °F, dew point 36 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- CLL
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.