Mesaba Aviation Flight 2831
Saab 340-B · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP) to Abaiang Airport (ABF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01LA033
- 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
Saab 340-B
- Aircraft type
- Saab 340
- 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
- N402XJ
- Operator
- Mesaba Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), Minneapolis, MNTo Abaiang Airport (ABF)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Object › Bird(s)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Captain reported the airplane was on the ILS approach at 600 feet above ground level when the airplane impacted a flock of snow geese. The Captain reported he decided to continue the approach for landing. Once on the ground the flight attendant informed the Captain there was a hole in the side of the airplane and that a passenger was injured. The Captain reported a doctor on board the airplane removed a piece of metal from the passenger's leg and administered first aid prior to the ambulance arriving. The Captain reported, "When we looked at aircraft 402 it was pretty messed up. There were geese in both intakes, three holes in the side, prop blades with pieces missing out of them, a side window busted, both front windows hit and one wiper gone, the other broke off to the side, one gear was hit and one flap."
Probable cause
the impact with the flock of snow geese.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01LA033
- Event ID
- 20001212X22266
- Case number
- CHI01LA033
- 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 2000-11-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e34e53d55a55ba49aa3642fa48b5de5619211e02a45054343453c31ca4a3a509; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:20:45.928Z.