ANC92IA147 · Short Brothers SH-7
Camai Air Short Brothers SH-7 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Nunam Iqua Airport (SXP) to St Mary's Airport (KSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC92IA147
- 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
- General aviation
- 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 SH-7
- Aircraft type
- Short Brothers SH-7
- 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
- N53NS
- Operator
- Camai Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nunam Iqua Airport (SXP)To St Mary's Airport (KSM), ST MARYS, AK
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Door, exterior crew › Unlatched
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE LEFT COCKPIT DOOR BEHIND PILOT THE POSITION OPENED INTO AIRSTREAM AT 50 FT AGL ON INITIAL CLIMBOUT. THE DOOR DEPARATED AND DAMAGED LEFT PROPELLER AND FUSELAGE SKIN. THE PILOT COMPLETED SINGLE ENGINE PROCEDURES AND PROCEDED IMC TO ALTERNATE AND COMPLETED IFR APPROACH AND LANDING WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. THE DOOR WAS NOT FOUND. IT WAS UNDETERMINED IF THE DOOR LATCH MALFUNCTIONED FOR PERSONNEL FAILED TO CLOSE THE LATCH. COCKPIT LIGHTING DOES NOT ILLUMINATE AS A FUNCTION OF THE DOOR LATCH. THEE IS NO WARNING LIGHT TO WARN OF AN UNLATCHED DOOR. THE DOOR HINGES ARE MOUNTED ON THE AFT FRAME OF THE DOOR OPENING, THUS SWINGING REARWARD IN FRONT OF PROPELLER.
Probable cause
THE UNLATCHING OF THE LEFT CREW ENTRANCE DOOR BY MEANS UNDETERMINED AND THE LACK OF ADHERENCE TO DOOR CHECK ITEMS BY THE PILOT IN COMMAND ON THE REQUISITE CHECKLISTS. A FACTOR RELATING TO THE INCIDENT WAS THE SEPARATION OF THE DOOR FROM THE FRAME WHEN OPENED INTO THE SLIPSTREAM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC92IA147
- Event ID
- 20001211X15277
- Case number
- ANC92IA147
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-08-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9554f07e8cb9bf3b962a9089c0edda48e8dc3537985cc4a64e59714f566f6979; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:42:25.380Z.