CHI95LA341 · Swearingen SA-226TC
Grand Aire Express Swearingen SA-226TC · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From South Bend International Airport (SBN) to 5FP · Panama City, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA341
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Swearingen SA-226TC
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-226
- 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
- N169GA
- Operator
- Grand Aire Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From South Bend International Airport (SBN)To 5FP · Panama City, FL
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of South Bend, IN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A REPOSITIONING FLIGHT, THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND (PIC) WAS CONDUCTING ENGINE OUT TRAINING WITH THE COPILOT. THE PIC SIMULATED A RIGHT ENGINE FAILURE DURING INITIAL CLIMBOUT AFTER TAKEOFF APPROXIMATELY 300 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. THE AIRSPEED AND ALTITUDE STARTED TO DECAY. THE PIC SAID HE FIXATED ON AIRSPEED AND TERMINATED TRAINING AS AIRSPEED NEARED SINGLE ENGINE BEST ANGLE OF CLIMB AIRSPEED (VXSE). THE AIRPLANE STRUCK TREES NEAR THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY AS POWER WAS APPLIED ON BOTH ENGINES, BUT THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED TO FLY AND WAS LANDED BACK AT THE AIRPORT. THE PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK STATED UNDER A CAUTION THAT MINIMUM ALTITUDE FOR OBSTACLE CLEARANCE SHOULD BE MAINTAINED UNTIL SINGLE ENGINE BEST RATE OF CLIMB AIRSPEED (VYSE) IS ATTAINED. AT 11,500 POUNDS GROSS WEIGHT, THE SINGLE ENGINE CLIMB RATE SHOULD BEEN A POSITIVE 700 FEET PER MINUTE.
Probable cause
the Pilot-in-Command's inadequate supervision of the flight and failure to assure that proper airspeed, rate of climb, and clearance from trees were obtained/maintained.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA341
- Event ID
- 20001207X04476
- Case number
- CHI95LA341
- 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 1995-09-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e4388b2d0ea80dc2e3560cac7c87ab81286d27e4adaa48a6c0c6ae0b729da4fd; retrieved 2026-09-22T23:15:09.965Z.