- Date
- April 1, 1990, 08:00 local (15:00 UTC)
- Place
- Panoche, CA
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N27220Fairchild SA227AC
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 14, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900401013899A
- Case key
- 26773
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
The pilot's poor judgment in attempting a flight while being fatigued due to the lack of sleep which resulted in a loss of control and subsequent overstressing of the airplane.
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 commuter air carrier captain's last scheduled flight had terminated in sacramento on 3/31. He informed his carrier that he would like to be located in the los angeles or santa barbara area by 4/1. They offered the airplane which needed to be repositioned to santa barbara. He had never piloted the airplane solo, but did not want to wait for a co-pilot. The pilot stated he climbed to 17,500 ft, trimmed the airplane for cruise flight, and 'dozed off' several times. When he last awoke the airplane was descending at over 300 KTS (vne is 246 KTS). He was only able to recover using electric trim. The upper wing skin panel damage was later observed by a passenger on a subsequent flight. According to the airplane's manufacturer, the airplane would have had to experience a calculated load factor of 7.8 g's to sustain the observed damage to the wing skin panels, stringers and main spars. The pilot stated he had only slept 1-1/2 to 2 hrs during the preceding 24-HR period.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N27220
- Reported as
- Fairchild SA227AC
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- AC-718
- Engine
- Garrett TPE 331-11, 1,100 horsepower, turbo prop
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Positioning · Part 91
- Operator
- Skywest Airlines Inc.
- Registered owner
- Unknown
- Departed
- SMF · Sacramneto, CA
- Destination
- SBA · Santa Barbara, CA
- Flight plan
- Company VFR
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
- 38
- Certificates
- Airline transport, Flight instructor
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 6,304 total · 2,093 in this make and model · 5,114 as pilot in command · 254 in the last 90 days · 115 in the last 30 days · 7 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N27220 · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.