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Pennsylvania Commuter Flight 3575

14 Jun 1993 · Atlantic City, NJ, United States

Short Brothers SD3-60-200 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route

From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC93IA113
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

Short Brothers SD3-60-200

Aircraft type
Short Brothers SD3
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
N711HJ
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, PATo Tweed New Haven Airport (HVN), New Haven, CT
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
En route · cruise
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
None

Cause areas

  • Fire warning system, cargo › False indication

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlantic City, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE AIRPLANE WAS CRUISING AT 6000 FEET WHEN THE AFT BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT FIRE LIGHT ILLUMINATED IN THE COCKPIT. EXTINGUISHING AGENT WAS DIRECTED TO THE AFT BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT BY THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT PLACING THE NOZZLE OF A HAND HELD FIRE EXTINGUISHER THROUGH A RECEPTACLE WITH A SEALING 'O' RING, LOCATED ON THE AFT CABIN BULKHEAD. THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT SAID THE EXTINGUISHING AGENT BLEW BACK ONTO HER HANDS. SHE THEN TRIED TWO OTHER EXTINGUISHERS WITH THE SAME RESULTS. AFTER LANDING, EXAMINATION OF THE BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF A FIRE. THE FIRE WARNING WAS ATTRIBUTED TO A FALSE INDICATION FROM THE SMOKE DETECTOR IN THE AFT BAGGAGE COMPARTMENT. POST INCIDENT TESTING BY THE FAA AND THE OPERATOR FOUND THAT WHEN THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER NOZZLE DID NOT FIT THORUGH THE SEALING 'O' RING, EXTINGUISHING AGENT WOULD SPRAY BACK ON THE PERSON HOLDING THE FIRE EXTINGUISHER. WHEN THE SEALING 'O' RING WAS LUBRICATED, AND THE NOZZLE WAS CHAMFERED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MANUFACTURERS SERVICE BULLETIN, THE EXTINGUISHER NOZZLE FIT THROUGH THE SEALING 'O' RING EASILY AND NO LEAKAGE OCCURRED.

Probable cause

A malfunction of the cargo fire warning system which resulted in a false alarm.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC93IA113
Event ID
20001211X12683
Case number
NYC93IA113
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: 82dafa632ea00b9fc9d4294488d9792a53835b2c43587636d84d39792573d8de; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:34:34.504Z.