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Usairways Express Flight 5286

23 Dec 1997 · Windsor Locks, CT, United States

Beech 1900D · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water while taxiing

From LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Bradley International Airport (BDL)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC98LA050
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
Instrument 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
N140ZV
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), FLUSHING, NYTo Bradley International Airport (BDL)
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
Taxi
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
On ground/water collision with terrain/water
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

  • Airport facilities, taxiway condition › Snowbank
  • Airport personnel › Airport snow removal, inadequate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Windsor Locks, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

After landing, the airplane was taxied to the ramp by the pilot-in-command (PIC). The visibility was reduced due to blowing snow. The second-in-command (SIC) stated that while taxiing, he observed a snow bank as it passed under the nose of the airplane. Before he could inform the PIC, he heard a 'slapping' noise on the side of the airplane. Examination of the airplane revealed two propeller blades had separated from the right engine's propeller hub, and had struck the right side of the airplane's fuselage. The airplane had taxied into a 28 inch high snow bank that ran perpendicular to its path across the ramp. The snow had been left on the ramp by airport snow plowing operations. Neither the airport NOTAMS nor the airports terminal information service (ATIS) reported the snow banks across the ramp. During the same time frame, an Airbus and a Boeing 727 became stuck while taxiing in the snow at the airport.

Probable cause

The inadequate snow removal by airport personnel. Contributing factors were the snowbank and whiteout conditions.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC98LA050
Event ID
20001208X09368
Case number
NYC98LA050
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: 8614cf436cd97781a8ed727dd99fd08872d18ba23c45d782baa8392ea3ff71e7; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:15:44.733Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N140ZV; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.