Mesaba Airlines Flight 3253
Fairchild SA227AC · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Grand Forks International Airport (KGFK) to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (KMSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI96FA216
- 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
Fairchild SA227AC
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild SA227
- 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
- N2692P
- Operator
- Mesaba Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Forks International Airport (KGFK), NDTo Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (KMSP), Minneapolis, MN
- 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 · climb to 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Compressor assembly › Other
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The captain reported that the airplane was at 5,000 feet mean sea level, the propeller rpm was 100 percent, and other engine indications were normal. A loss of power on the number two engine was 'sudden and immediate.' The flightcrew declared an emergency and recovered visually to Grand Forks without further incident. Examination of the airplane revealed eleven impact marks to the right side of the fuselage. Two of the impacts penetrated the fuselage side. Examination of the engine revealed evidence of overload failure and penetration of the gear box. Fatigue fractures in the second stage compressor impeller rim emanated from a heat affected, rubbed area on the impeller blades. A corresponding rubbed area was evident on the impeller shroud, and aluminum material was fused to the titanium impeller. No evidence of material defects were noted.
Probable cause
insufficient clearance between the second stage compressor impeller and the shroud. A factor was the subsequent fatigue failure of the impeller.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI96FA216
- Event ID
- 20001208X05913
- Case number
- CHI96FA216
- 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: 762048080c6e845a87e5408b081b59d27f0705a994c8a637af972cab37a958db; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:49:15.142Z.