Wings West Airlines Flight 5204
Saab-Scania AB (Saab) S340B · Incident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR) to Nashville International Airport (BNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL94IA092
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Saab-Scania AB (Saab) S340B
- Aircraft type
- Saab Scania Ab (saab) S340
- 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
- N245AE
- Operator
- Wings West Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR), Baton Rouge, LATo Nashville International Airport (BNA), TN
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS PARKED ON THE RAMP OVER NIGHT, UNCOVERED, IN CONTINOUS RAIN. TAKEOFF WAS MADE IN HARD RAIN. AFTER REACHING CRUISE FLIGHT (FL250), ENGINE POWER INTERRUPTIONS OCCURRED IN BOTH ENGINES. FLIGHT CONDITIONS WERE IMC, -20 DEG. OAT, AND LIGHT RIME ICING. ALSO, ALL AIRSPEED INDICATIONS DECREASED TO ZERO. A DESCENT WAS BEGUN, AND THE FLIGHT CREW DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. THE AIRPLANE WAS LANDED SAFELY AT ITS DESTINATION. THE INVESTIGATION DISCOVERED THAT ENGINE POWER INTERRUPTIONS HAVE OCCURRED IN LIGHT ICING CONDITIONS SINCE THE INTRODUCTION INTO REVENUE SERVICE OF THE ACFT. AD'S WERE ISSUED TO PROHIBIT REVENUE FLTS, THEN FLTS IN ICING CONDITIONS WITHOUT AN AUTO IGNITION. THE MANUFACTURER HAD DETERMINED THAT ICE/SLUSH COULD BUILD UP ON THE INLET PARTICLE SEPARATOR, BREAK OFF, AND ENTER THE ENGINE, RESULTING IN FLAMEOUT. THE ICE/SLUSH COULD NOT BE SEEN BY THE PILOTS, AND WAS NOT REDUCED BY ENGINE ANTI-ICE. AN AUTO IGNITION WAS ADDED THAT RESTARTED THE ENGINE WITHIN 2 SECONDS. ACFT CERTIFICATION RULES REQIRE THAT NO ACCUMULATION OF ENGINE INLET ICE OCCUR THAT WILL ADVERSELY AFFECT THE ENGINE OPERATION.
Probable cause
ENGINE ICE/SLUSH INGESTION THAT RESULTED IN POWER INTERRUPTIONS AND FAILURE OF THE AIR DATA COMPUTER COUPLED WITH MOISTURE INGESTION OF THE STATIC SYSTEM. FACTORS WERE THE FAILURE OF THE MANUFACTURER TO CORRECT A PREVIOUSLY IDENTIFIED DESIGN DEFICIENCY THAT PERMITTED THE ACCUMULATION OF ENGINE INLET ICE/SLUSH, WHICH COULD NOT BE OBSERVED BY THE FLIGHT CREW, NOR PREVENTED BY ON-BOARD ENGINE ANTI-ICE EQUIPMENT, THE LACK OF A PROACTIVE STANCE BY THE FAA WHEN INVOLVED WITH AIRCRAFT CERTIFICATION UNDER BI-LATERAL AGREEMENTS, AND THE INADEQUACY OF THE FEDERAL AVIATION REGULATIONS REGARDING ENGINE INLET ICE PROTECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL94IA092
- Event ID
- 20001206X01205
- Case number
- ATL94IA092
- 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: investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9aacd5a57ff19b9ea2e40747b127319c95fb8b6330c280eb63c8c470fcc54c5c; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:16:41.783Z.