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SkyWest Airlines Fairchild SA227-AC accident

15 Jan 1990 · Elko, NV, United States

Fairchild SA227-AC · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach

From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) to Elko Regional Airport (EKO)

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Event

NTSB case
DEN90FA042
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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Fairchild SA227-AC

Aircraft type
Fairchild SA227
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
N2721M
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UTTo Elko Regional Airport (EKO), Elko, NV
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
Approach · IFR initial 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 terrain/water
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

  • Copilot/second pilot › Monitoring, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
  • Proper altitude › Not maintained

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING ARRIVAL, THE FLT CREW OF SKYWEST AIRLINES FLT 5855 REQUESTED A VOR/DME-B APCH TO THE ELKO ARPT, WHICH WAS APPROVED. AS THE APCH CONTINUED, THE FLT CREW RPRTD OVER THE BULLION VOR. APRX 30 SEC LATER, THE ACFT CRASHED. IMPACT OCCURRED AT THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN, ABOUT 100' BEFORE REACHING THE VOR STATION. ELEVATION OF THE CRASH SITE WAS ABOUT 6460 FT; MIN PUBLISHED CROSSING ALT AT THE VOR WAS 7000 FT. THE ARPT WAS 4.1 MI FROM THE VOR AT AN ELEVATION OF 5135 FT.

Probable cause

IMPROPER IFR PROCEDURE BY THE CAPTAIN, AND INADEQUATE MONITORING OF THE APPROACH BY THE FIRST OFFICER, WHICH RESULTED IN A FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE DURING THE APPROACH. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE TERRAIN AND WEATHER CONDITIONS AT THE ACCIDENT SITE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN90FA042
Event ID
20001212X22403
Case number
DEN90FA042
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: 103ad67d95dacd6e9f1dfa929bb8e411c609055051f848059c160875f4132886; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:05:42.618Z.