Wings West Saab-Scania AB (Saab) SF-340B accident
Saab-Scania AB (Saab) SF-340B · Accident while standing
From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96LA394
- 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
- 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-340B
- Aircraft type
- Saab Scania Ab (saab) SF-340
- 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
- N320AE
- Operator
- Wings West
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), DFW AIRPORT, TXTo Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), AR
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) not operating
- 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
- None
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was landed and parked at the passenger disembarking location at 1831, and a light rain (drizzle) was falling as passengers were disembarking. The fourth passenger stated that he disembarked down the stairway with a briefcase in his right hand. He reported that as he stepped on the second-to-last step, he 'slipped' and 'reached for a handrail to support himself.' He reported that at that point, there was no handrail for him to hold onto, and he subsequently fell to the pavement injuring himself. Handrails were incorporated with the stairway. The handrails extended down the stairs (on both sides) from the cabin door to a point where it angled about 90 degrees (down & back toward the steps). The lower end of the handrails were attached at the third step from the bottom of the stairway. The lowest usable part of the handrails extended beyond the second step (from the bottom) and at least partially over the bottom step. Although light rain was reported, the stairway was reported as not wet, since it had just been extended from the aircraft, and non-slip covering of the steps was reported to be in good condition. One of the passenger's 'Docksider' shoes was found on the stairs. Also, the company reported that the passenger believed that his briefcase might have caught on something on the way down the stairs.
Probable cause
the passenger fell for undetermined reasons, while disembarking from the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96LA394
- Event ID
- 20001208X06738
- Case number
- FTW96LA394
- 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, damage. 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: ad512a6dd50babf73437755d2ce0370c1dbe3862f291cac57d2c68f0590729eb; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:46:24.955Z.