Simmons Airlines/Am.Eagle Short Brothers SD3-60 accident
Short Brothers SD3-60 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while taxiing
From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91FA152
- 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
- Accident
- 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
- 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
- N715NC
- Operator
- Simmons Airlines/Am.Eagle
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD), Rockford, ILTo not recorded
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Hydraulic system, line › Ruptured
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT DURING POST LANDING TAXI OPERATIONS, HE WAS UNABLE TO STEER THE AIRPLANE OR APPLY NORMAL BRAKES. THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED THE TAXIWAY, AND RAN ACROSS A GRASS MEDIAN AND SERVICE ROAD BEFORE IT IMPACTED A LIGHT POLE AND CAME TO A STOP. POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED A FAILED NOSEWHEEL STEERING HYDRAULIC LINE, WHICH ALLOWED SYSTEM FLUID TO BE PORTED OVERBOARD INTO THE NOSE WHEELWELL. FURTHER EXAMINATION REVEALED THE LINE FAILED AS A RESULT OF A PUNCTURE OF THE INTERNAL HOSE BY THE WORN/FRAYED OUTER BRAID. RECORDS INDICATE THE FAILED LINE WAS ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT AND HAD OPERATED THROUGH 17,969 HOURS AND 21,324 CYCLES.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE NOSE WHEEL STEERING HYDRAULIC LINE DURING AFTER LANDING GROUND OPERATIONS. A RELATED FACTOR IS THE MANUFACTURER'S INADEQUATE INSPECTION AND/OR REPLACEMENT STANDARDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91FA152
- Event ID
- 20001212X16938
- Case number
- CHI91FA152
- 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: 3d3feb16edd2b1de193abe69f161c0191a852987a21ddbed6a2b33c38668f156; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:55:01.703Z.