Air Wisconsin de Havilland DHC-8-311 incident
de Havilland DHC-8-311 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From University of Illinois Willard Airport (CMI) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93IA069
- 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
de Havilland DHC-8-311
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-8
- 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
- N433AW
- Operator
- Air Wisconsin
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From University of Illinois Willard Airport (CMI)To Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Landing gear, axle › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS DELAYED ON THE RUNWAY AFTER THE FLIGHT CREW EXCEEDED THE POWER NOSEWHEEL STEERING RANGE DURING A TIGHT 180 DEGREE TURN INTO POSITION. AFTER SEVERAL UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO STRAIGHTEN THE (CASTORING) NOSEWHEEL USING DIFFERENTIAL POWER AND BRAKES, THE CREW CALLED FOR GROUND PERSONNEL TO ASSIST. GROUND PERSONNEL REPORTED THE INBOARD WHEEL OF THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR (#3 WHEEL) APPEARED TO BE LEANING AGAINST THE STRUT. THE CO-PILOT STATED THE LANDING GEAR APPEARED NORMAL AND THE FLIGHT DEPARTED. SHORTLY AFTER LIFTOFF, THE #3 WHEEL FELL TO THE GROUND. POSTACCIDENT EXAMINATION REVEALED THE FRACTURE OF THE AXLE WAS THE RESULT OF THE DEGRADATION AND FAILURE OF THE #3 INNER WHEEL BEARING. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF WATER CONTAMINATION IN THE WHEEL BEARING GREASE.
Probable cause
THE TOTAL FAILURE OF THE INBOARD RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR WHEEL AXLE DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93IA069
- Event ID
- 20001211X11665
- Case number
- CHI93IA069
- 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: 91db0fe9e413be7cde4451edee99d5992bcb6361833c65cb514924a565fd02b1; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:41:44.063Z.