Nashville Eagle British Aerospace BAE JETSTREAM 3201 BAE JETSTR incident
British Aerospace BAE JETSTREAM 3201 BAE JETSTR · Incident before flight
From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) to Nashville International Airport (BNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91IA044
- 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
British Aerospace BAE JETSTREAM 3201 BAE JETSTR
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace BAE JETSTREAM 3201
- 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
- N844AE
- Operator
- Nashville Eagle
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NCTo Nashville International Airport (BNA), Nashville, TN
- 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
- Prior to flight
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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, entrance stair › Not secured
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Charlotte, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AFTER THE NO. 2 ENGINE STARTED, THE FLIGHT CREW NOTICED A CABIN DOOR OPEN LIGHT. THE CAPTAIN SHUT DOWN THE NO. 1 ENGINE, AND SIGNALED TO THE GROUND CREW TO CHECK THE DOOR. THE CAPTAIN RECYCLED THE DOOR WARNING CIRCUIT BREAKER SEVERAL TIMES, AND THE LIGHT EXTINGUISHED. ON CLIMBOUT, PASSING 7,000 FEET, THE CABIN DOOR SUDDENLY SEPARATED FROM THE AIRPLANE. THE FLIGHT RETURNED TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT AND LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER PROBLEMS. THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE GROUND CREW DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE CAPTAIN'S INTENTIONS, AND DID NOT CHECK THE DOOR FOR SECURITY. THE CAPTAIN DID NOT FOLLOW CHECKLIST PROCEDURES FOR DEALING WITH A DOOR LIGHT ON THE GROUND. THE RAMP AGENT, THE LAST PERSON TO CLOSE THE DOOR, HAD NOT OPERATED JETSTREAM DOORS PRIOR TO THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT AND THE RECOVERED DOOR REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE CAPTAIN TO FOLLOW CHECKLIST PROCEDURES, RESULTING IN A FLIGHT WITH THE CABIN DOOR UNSECURED, AND THE SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF THE CABIN DOOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91IA044
- Event ID
- 20001212X16262
- Case number
- ATL91IA044
- 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 1991-02-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6109175c4cf669449d3fab57358ba331d2938b4aff8e0a98890fba450f7f6c31; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:56:57.400Z.