Flight 251 · Gates Learjet 35
Gates Learjet 35 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) to Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI99LA078
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Gates Learjet 35
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N130F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, OHTo Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall/mush
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Copilot/second pilot › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Copilot/second pilot › Airspeed, inadequate
- Copilot/second pilot › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The second pilot turned onto a 4 mile final from the end of the runway. The second pilot said at one mile from the end of the runway, the airplane was stabilized on the glide slope and localizer inbound course, at a landing approach speed of 122 knots. Crossing the runway threshold, the pilot-in-command called out to the second pilot, 'Ref (landing approach speed), three green, cleared to land.' Approximately 3 feet above the runway surface, the pilot-in- command called out 'Ref minus 10 [knots indicated airspeed]. As he spoke, the pilot-in- command said he felt a slight increase in sink [rate], followed immediately by a violent roll to the right. The right tip tank struck the runway surface. Examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies.
Probable cause
the second pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed which resulted in an inadvertent stall mush.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI99LA078
- Event ID
- 20001204X00035
- Case number
- CHI99LA078
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-01-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7b65aed48efd841a5d2af8c6e5c6aefabc3a9c044920a717978bbaa107d335d1; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:00:09.600Z.