Comair Flight 3599
Embraer 120 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS) to Orlando International Airport (MCO)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96FA162
- 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
Embraer 120
- Aircraft type
- Embraer 120
- 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
- N168CA
- Operator
- Comair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lynden Pindling International Airport (NAS), NassauTo Orlando International Airport (MCO)
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft manuals, procedure information › Inadequate
- Manufacturer › Procedure inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane experienced a total loss of hydraulic pressure and hydraulic fluid while on descent to the destination airport. The flight crew conducted emergency procedures (hydraulic failure/landing gear failure) in accordance with the airplane flight manual (AFM)/quick reference handbook (QRH) with negative results. Subsequently, a wheels up landing was made. Examination of the airplane revealed a rupture of the No. 1 engine-driven hydraulic pump pressure hose. Review of the AFM and QRH emergency procedures revealed the manual did not discriminate between hydraulic or electrical failures. The procedures listed in the maintenance manual for lowering the landing gear by the free-fall mechanism were different from the AFM/QRH. Functional test of the landing gear system, using the AFM/QRH, resulted in the landing gear failing to extend due to hydraulic blockage in the landing gear solenoid valve. Functional test of the landing gear system, using the free-fall procedure contained in the maintenance manual, resulted in the extension of the landing gear.
Probable cause
the aircraft manufacture's inadequate written procedures in the airplane flight manual/quick reference handbook, which resulted in a failure of the landing gear to extend and a wheels up emergency landing, due to hydraulic blockage in the landing gear solenoid valve. Factors relating to the accident were: the chafed and ruptured hydraulic line and the subsequent hydraulic leak, which resulted in loss of hydraulic pressure and an inoperative normal landing gear extension system.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96FA162
- Event ID
- 20001208X06057
- Case number
- MIA96FA162
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 5c20bde872e5c3db997214367d83ca881339e3e1ed6e6f5af8c40aa68f79db74; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:49:22.516Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N168CA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.