CHI90LA088 · Mitsubishi MU-300
Mitsubishi MU-300 · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing
From Purdue University Airport (LAF) to Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90LA088
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Mitsubishi MU-300
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-300
- 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
- N368PU
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Purdue University Airport (LAF), W LAFAYETTE, INTo Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY)
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- On ground/water 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
- Airport personnel › Unsafe/hazardous condition warning, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Gary, IN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE FLT CREW BGN ARR AS SNW REMOVAL PSNL (SRP) WERE REMOVING SNW FM THE RWY (BFR DAYLIGHT & BFR THE TWR OPENED). THE ARPT MGR USED A LIGHT TO SIGNAL SRP TO CLR THE RWY. THE LCL TWR CTLR (LC), WHO WAS COMING ON DUTY, ESTABLISHED RADIO CTC WITH SRP TO ASSURE THE RWY WAS CLR. SRP INFORMED HIM THAT 50% OF THE RWY (NORTH OF THE CENTERLINE) WAS CLEARED OF SNW. THE LC RELAYED THE INFO TO THE FLT CREW & SUBSEQUENTLY CLRD THEM TO LND ON RWY 30. THE CAPT SAID HE LANDED ON THE CLRD PORTION OF THE RWY, BUT AVOIDED THE RGT EDGE 'WHERE SNOWBANKS COULD BE ASSUMED TO EXIST.' DRG THE LNDG ROLL, WITH THE LEFT WING EXTENDED OVER THE UNPLOWED PORTION OF THE RWY, THE OCCUPANTS FELT 'BUMPS' THAT THEY ATTRIBUTED TO ICE/SNOWON THE RWY. WHILE TAXIING OFF THE RWY, THE CAPT NOTICED THE LEFT WING HAD BEEN DAMAGED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE LEFT WING & FLAP HAD HIT A 1 TO 4 FT SNW RIDGE BETWEEN THE PLOWED & UNPLOWED PORTIONS OF THE RWY, WHICH WAS PARALLEL & ADJACENT TO THE RWY CENTERLINE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF SNOW REMOVAL PERSONNEL TO RECOGNIZE THE POTENTIAL HAZARD OF THE SNOW RIDGE ON THE RUNWAY AND COMMUNICATE THIS INFORMATION TO THE CONTROL TOWER. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE RUNWAY/TERRAIN/LIGHT CONDITIONS, AND FAILURE OF AIRPORT MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL TO IDENTIFY THE POTENTIAL HAZARDOUS CONDITION ON THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90LA088
- Event ID
- 20001212X22534
- Case number
- CHI90LA088
- 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: f808e98481d7e4209436cd9e468b7211561802aba3253c3e22d03a2db05c058c; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:46:00.258Z.