Simmons Airlines ATR 72-212 incident
ATR 72-212 · Incident during initial climb
From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to South Bend International Airport (SBN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95IA215
- 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
ATR 72-212
- Aircraft type
- ATR 72
- 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
- N440AM
- Operator
- Simmons Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)To South Bend International Airport (SBN), South Bend, IN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Flight attendant › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE MAIN PASSENGER CABIN DOOR OPENED SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF AT APPROXIMATELY 800 FEET AGL. THE AIRPLANE RETURNED TO THE AIRPORT, AND THE DOOR SEPARATED FROM THE AIRPLANE WHILE IT WAS ON FINAL APPROACH. ALL INDICATIONS ARE THAT THE DOOR WAS CLOSED AND LOCKED PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. THE LACK OF DAMAGE INDICATES THE DOOR WAS UNLOCKED/UNLATCHED WHEN IT OPENED. THE AIRPLANE HAD A NEWLY DESIGNED HANDRAIL/DOOR HANDLE INSTALLED WHICH REVERSED THE DIRECTION OF MOTION TO LOCK AND UNLOCK THE DOOR. FOURTEEN AIRPLANES IN THE FLEET INCORPORATED THIS DESIGN. THE NEWLY HIRED #1 FLIGHT ATTENDANT HAD OPERATED THIS HANDLE ON 16 OF HER 60 FLIGHTS SINCE BEING HIRED. SHE HAD BEEN ON DUTY ABOUT 14.5 HOURS ON THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT WITH ONLY 5 HOURS OF SLEEP THE PREVIOUS NIGHT DUE TO HER FLIGHT SCHEDULE. SHE STATED THERE WAS A VERY LOUD 'HUMMING NOISE' COMING FROM THE DOOR PRIOR TO IT OPENING.
Probable cause
the flight attendant's failure to follow procedures which resulted in her inadvertently opening the main cabin door in flight. Factors associated with the incident were: the flight attendant's fatigue due to lack of sleep and a long duty day, interference with habit regarding the direction of motion of the door locking handle, and inadequate design of the door locking handle by the manufacturer.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95IA215
- Event ID
- 20001207X03883
- Case number
- CHI95IA215
- 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 1995-07-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6bfdfa5b3a0df0935c0d755a869805d4d4e5c92dfeb16253a664251e5ada22ee; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:59:26.947Z.