- Date
- October 30, 1986, 19:35 local (Oct 31, 1986, 03:35 UTC)
- Place
- Santa Barbara, CA
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 2 minor, 11 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N137WWFairchild Swearingen SA-226TC
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report August 11, 1988
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19861030052429A
- Case key
- 25355
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
On a dark night, in cavu weather, the captain directed the first officer (who was flying) to disarm the landing gear warning horn system by pulling its circuit breaker. The f/o complied & did not challenge the captain. On final approach the f/o failed to check that his 'gear down' command was complied with & the captain forgot to lower the gear. As the acft slid to a stop on its belly the right engine's 3 prop blades fragmented & punctured the passenger compartment. The 2 pax who were seated in row 2 abeam the blades' plane of rotation were struck by fragments & received serious leg & minor facial lacerations.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N137WW
- Reported as
- Fairchild Swearingen SA-226TC
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- TC-401
- Airframe hours
- 11,024
- Engine
- Garrett TPE331-10-VA, 840 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Wings West Airlines, Inc., doing business as American Eagle
- Registered owner
- Fairchild Aircraft Corp.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- LAX · Los Angeles, CA
- Destination
- SBA · Santa Barbara, CA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- SBA · Santa Barbara, runway 25, 6,049 × 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
- 35
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 10,485 total · 2,292 in this make and model · 8,900 as pilot in command · 262 in the last 90 days · 83 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 10° at 6 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 68 °F, dew point 37 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- SBA
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.