Phoenix Air Gates Learjet 36A accident
Gates Learjet 36A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88MA047
- 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
- 2 · 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
Gates Learjet 36A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 36
- 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
- N79SF
- Operator
- Phoenix Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Descent, excessive
- Pilot in command › Level off, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Monroe, LA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CREW WAS EXECUTING THE ILS APPROACH AND HAD TURNED BACK INBOUND ON THE PROCEDURE TURN TO THE OUTER MARKER WHEN THE CO-PILOT STATED THEY WERE 5.9 DME IN A CALM VOICE WITH NO INDICATION OF A PROBLEM. IMPACT WITH THE GROUND OCCURRED AT ABOUT 5.9 DME, APPROXIMATELY 10 STATUTE MILES FROM THE AIRPORT, WHILE THE AIRCRAFT WAS IN A SLIGHT NOSEUP, SLIGHT RIGHT WING DOWN ATTITUDE, WITH A HIGH VERTICAL RATE OF DESCENT, AND A HIGH FORWARD SPEED. THE AIRCRAFT WAS DEMOLISHED. NO EVIDENCE OF A PRE-IMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION OF THE AIRCRAFT OR ITS SYSTEMS COULD BE FOUND. THE COPILOT WAS NOT RATED IN THE AIRCRAFT AND HAD LOGGED A TOTAL OF 7.9 HOURS OF JET TIME IN HIS PERSONAL LOGBOOK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88MA047
- Event ID
- 20001213X24911
- Case number
- FTW88MA047
- 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: d5ce4c31d5164fbd526d970515cc6aceba29dbe9edadac89569c56c29460fb01; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:12:08.379Z.