Northwest Airlink British Aerospace 3101 accident
British Aerospace 3101 · Accident while standing
From Key Field / Meridian Regional Airport (MEI) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92LA022
- 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
- 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 3101
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace 3101
- 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
- N311PX
- Operator
- Northwest Airlink
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Key Field / Meridian Regional Airport (MEI), Meridian, MSTo 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 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
- Standing · engine(s) not operating
- 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
- None
Cause areas
- Ground personnel › Miscellaneous equipment, not used
- Ground personnel › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Memphis, TN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS PARKED AT THE PASSENGER TERMINAL WITH BOTH ENGINES SHUT DOWN AS PASSENGERS DEPLANED. REPORTEDLY, TWO RAMP AGENTS WERE POSITIONED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE AIRSTAIR DOOR AND WERE ASSISTING THE DEPLANING PASSENGERS. HOWEVER, ACCORDING TO THE WIFE OF THE INJURED PASSENGER, HER HUSBAND, A DIABETIC, WAS NOT ASSISTED BY THE TWO AGENTS. AS THE PASSENGER STEPPED FROM THE LAST STEP TO THE GROUND (APPROXIMATELY 18 INCHES) HE FELL AND BROKE HIS HIP. A NORTHWEST AIRLINK OFFICIAL STATED THAT A STEP WAS NOT POSITIONED BELOW THE FINAL AIRSTAIR STEP AS REQUIRED BY VERBAL COMPANY POLICY. A WRITTEN POLICY REGARDING THIS MATTER IS BEING FORMULATED AND WILL BE INSERTED INTO THE STATION MANUAL. SUBSEQUENT TO THIS ACCIDENT, ALL RAMP AGENTS HAVE BEEN RETRAINED IN THE USE OF THE ADDITIONAL STEP REQUIREMENT FOR THE JETSTREAM AIRPLANES.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE RAMP AGENT TO POSITION AN ADDITIONAL STEP BELOW THE LAST STEP OF THE AIRSTAIR DOOR AND THE GROUND; THE AGENT FAILED TO FOLLOW A VERBAL COMPANY PROCEDURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92LA022
- Event ID
- 20001212X18413
- Case number
- ATL92LA022
- 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: e9705d1d57963cfc939d552266a9b4866fcdec2be4f8a7fe082b00355a3a7a16; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:50:44.965Z.