Mesa Airlines Embraer EMB-120 RT incident
Embraer EMB-120 RT · Incident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Durango La Plata County Airport (DRO) to Denver International Airport (DEN)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN92IA074
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Embraer EMB-120 RT
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-120
- 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
- N221YV
- Operator
- Mesa Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Durango La Plata County Airport (DRO), Durango, COTo Denver International Airport (DEN)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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
- Electrical system, circuit breaker › Open
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CAPTAIN WAS FLYING THE AIRPLANE WITH HIS RIGHT HAND RESTING ON THE POWER CONTROLS. AS THE AIRPLANE TURNED ONTO FINAL APPROACH, IT ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE OF SUFFICIENT INTENSITY THAT THE CAPTAIN'S FEET CAME OFF THE RUDDER PEDALS. HE FELT A 'CLICK' IN HIS HAND AND 'THERE WAS AN INSTANTANEOUS PROPELLER OVERSPEED.' THE ENGINE WAS EVENTUALLY SECURED BY CLOSING THE FUEL SHUTOFF VALVE AND AN UNEVENTFUL NO FLAP LANDING WAS MADE. POST INCIDENT EXAMINATION DISCLOSED BOTH AIR GROUND CIRCUIT BREAKERS WERE OPEN. THE LEFT ENGINE WAS FOUND TO BE FUNCTIONALLY DESTROYED. A READOUT OF THE DIGITAL FLIGHT DATA RECORDER DISCLOSED THE MAXIMUM LEFT AND RIGHT PROPELLER RPM VALUES ATTAINED WERE 150.49% AND 120.4%, RESPECTIVELY. VERTICAL ACCELERATION VALUES RANGED FROM .647 TO 1.26 G'S, AND LONGITUDINAL ACCELERATION VALUES RANGED FROM .037 TO .096 G'S. THE RIGHT ENGINE TORQUE PEAKED AT 37%, WHILE THE LEFT ENGINE TORQUE REMAINED AT 0%. RIGHT ENGINE FUEL FLOW WAS 16% TO 19% LOWER THAN LEFT ENGINE FUEL FLOW, AND PROPELLER IMBALANCE VALUES FOR THE LEFT ENGINE WAS APPROXIMATELY 50% HIGHER THAN THOSE RECORDED FOR THE RIGHT ENGINE.
Probable cause
OPEN AIR GROUND CIRCUIT BREAKERS THAT ALLOWED THE PROPELLERS TO OVERSPEED. A FACTOR WAS: CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN92IA074
- Event ID
- 20001211X15130
- Case number
- DEN92IA074
- 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: 4fa1ab2e80e1ad71fd6b18e0261798bd3feffa9d60009b2940f8c2514f3e15f9; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:45:29.737Z.