- Date
- March 25, 1988, 08:30 local (14:30 UTC)
- Place
- Decatur, TX
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N411AEBritish Aerospace BAE-3101
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report January 16, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19880325071179A
- Case key
- 22689
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
Airplane's encounter with rought terrain during an attempted forced landing. The forced landing was necessitated after the captain used improper procedures to shutdown the left engine in flight following an unexplained torque fluctuation.
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 coplt was flying the acft as it was being ferried after minor maintenance. As they were in a descent and were apchg the destn arpt, the capt noted a left eng torque fluctuation of 20% to 30% & elected to secure the eng, although no yawing was noticed. Drg shutdown, the left prop did not feather & drag increased until the acft would not sustain level flt. An attempted restart of the left eng was unsuccessful, so the capt tried to feather it again. However, the left prop still did not feather. Subsequently, the plts were forced to land in an open field on uneven terrain & the acft was damaged. An extensive investigation was made, but no cause could be found for the torque fluctuation, nor could the condition be duplicated, however, the investigation did note that the air & ground procedures for eng shutdown were similar. A variation in the ground shutdown procedures allowed for engagement of the start latches.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N411AE
- Reported as
- British Aerospace BAE-3101
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 671
- Airframe hours
- 4,475
- Engine
- Airesearch TPE-331, 900 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Ferry · Part 91
- Operator
- Chaparral Airlines, doing business as American Eagle
- Registered owner
- U.S. Trust Co. Of New York
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- AAIP · March 3, 1988 · 83 hours before
- Departed
- SPS · Wichita Falls, TX
- Destination
- DFW · Dallas, TX
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
- 33
- Certificates
- Airline transport, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 4,841 total · 2,100 in this make and model · 3,230 as pilot in command · 246 in the last 90 days · 75 in the last 30 days · 6 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 360° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 15 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 64 °F, dew point 41 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- DFW, 45 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.