Wings West Airlines Saab-Scania AB (Saab) SF-34OB incident
Saab-Scania AB (Saab) SF-34OB · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Texarkana Regional Airport (Webb Field) (TXK) to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94IA154
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Saab-Scania AB (Saab) SF-34OB
- Aircraft type
- Saab Scania Ab (saab) SF-34
- 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
- N254AE
- Operator
- Wings West Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Texarkana Regional Airport (Webb Field) (TXK)To Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), DFW AIRPORT, TX
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Throttle/power lever › Movement restricted
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Texarkana, AR, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CONFIGURATION WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED DURING TAKEOFF AT APPROXIMATELY 95 KNOTS. THE CAPTAIN INITIATED THE ABORT BY MOVING THE POWER LEVERS TO FLIGHT IDLE AND APPLYING MAXIMUM BRAKING. THE CAPTAIN STATED THAT INITIALLY THE DECELERATION APPEARED NORMAL AND THE BRAKES BECAME INCREASINGLY INEFFECTIVE AND APPEARED TO FADE. SIGNS OF HEAVY BRAKING WERE FOUND ON THE RUNAWAY FOR 3,400 FEET. THE CAPTAIN ALSO STATED THAT HE EXPERIENCED SOME DIFFICULTY IN GETTING THE POWER LEVERS BACK BEYOND THE FLIGHT IDLE GATE. THE AIRPLANE ROLLED 205 FEET PAST THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD INTO A GRASS OVERRUN. SIMULATOR DEMONSTRATIONS WERE CONDUCTED TO EVALUATE THE REJECTED TAKEOFF PERFORMANCE. DEMONSTRATIONS CONCLUDED THAT IF THE PILOT INADVERTENTLY LIFTS UP ON THE BETA RANGE LOCK OUT TRIGGERS WHENEVER THE POWER LEVERS ARE IN THE FULL FORWARD POSITION, THE POWER LEVERS WILL JAM INTO TEETH WHICH WILL PREVENT THE PILOT FROM RETARDING THE POWER LEVERS. THIS SCENARIO RESULTED IN AN OVERRUN IN THE SIMULATOR. ILLUMINATION OF THE CONFIGURATION LIGHT WAS DUE TO INSUFFICIENT REBOUND ON THE RIGHT CONDITION LEVER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INABILITY TO RETARD THE POWER LEVERS DURING A REJECTED TAKEOFF DUE TO HIS FAILURE TO PERFORM THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE AIRCRAFT OPERATING MANUAL. A FACTOR WAS THE ILLUMINATION OF THE CONFIGURATION LIGHT AS RESULT OF INSUFFICIENT REBOUND ON THE RIGHT CONDITION LEVER WHILE PLACED IN THE FULL FORWARD POSITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94IA154
- Event ID
- 20001206X01276
- Case number
- FTW94IA154
- 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. 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: 8d0c51d1b05494020863b278bbe74f3d53dcb468eb1d6d1caeb5d1858aff5fcd; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:15:54.117Z.