FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

Mesa Airlines Beech 1900D incident

19 Jun 1997 · Clarksburg, WV, United States

Beech 1900D · Incident: airframe, component or system failure on approach

From Mid Ohio Valley Regional Airport (PKB) to North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
NYC97IA123
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

Beech 1900D

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 1900
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
N165YV
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Mid Ohio Valley Regional Airport (PKB), Parkersburg, WVTo North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB)
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
Approach
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
Minor

Cause areas

  • Flt control syst, wing flap control bearing › Separation
  • Manufacturer › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot lowered the flaps to 35 degrees while on final approach to runway 21. He noted aileron binding as the flaps traveled to 35 degrees, and at the same time heard a snap under the floor of the cockpit. After landing the flaps were not retracted. The airplane was taxied to the terminal where it was observed that the right outboard flap panel had became detached from the flap aft roller bearings at the inboard flap track. The flap was in contact with the aileron, which interfered with aileron control. The manufacturer had published a Safety Communique during May 1997. The Communique dealt with the inspection of the outboard flap attachment brackets and aft roller bearings of Beech 1900 series airplanes. The incident airplane was scheduled to have the inspection complied with during the next 30 days. The airplane had accumulated about 3,317 flight hours and 7,069 landings. An inspection of the remainder of the operator's fleet of Beech 1900D airplanes revealed that eight additional airplanes failed the inspection criteria, but had not reached the assigned number of cycles specified in the Communique.

Probable cause

The right outboard flap detaching from the flap aft roller bearings, at the flap track, which was a result of the manufacturer's inadequate inspection program.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC97IA123
Event ID
20001208X08210
Case number
NYC97IA123
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: 729d9c2f59a22b73182ed9877d4e01a24f91bbcc3e188d2cc28e8f610b0e6fba; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:30:46.996Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N165YV; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, MASA.