CHI88IA074 · Swearingen SA226T
Swearingen SA226T and Piper PA-31T · Incident: near collision between aircraft on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88IA074
- 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
- Incident
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Swearingen SA226T
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA226
- 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
- N600TA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Quad City International Airport (MLI), Moline, ILTo 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 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-31T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N484SC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Huntingburg Airport (HNB), Huntingburg, IN
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- 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
- Atc personnel(dep/apch) › IFR separation standards, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS PIPER PA-31T, N484SC, WAS ON AN IFR DEPARTURE FROM RWY 18 AT MERRIL C MEIGS ARPT, SWEARINGEN SA226T, N600TA WAS ON AN IFR ARRIVAL. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE 2 ACFT CONVERGED APRX 3 MI SOUTH OF THE ARPT. THE CREW OF N484SC SAW N600TA & TURNED TO MAINTAIN SEPARATION. THE PASSING DISTANCE WAS ESTIMATED TO BE ABOUT 2000 FT. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT AS N600TA WAS ARRIVING, THE SOUTH SATELLITE SECTOR #1 CONTROLLER (CTLR) AT CHICAGO O'HARE TRACON HAD CLRD THE CREW TO DSCND & MAINTAIN 2000 FT. WHEN THEY (N600TA) ADVISED THAT MEIGS WAS IN SIGHT, THE SECTOR #1 CTLR CLRD THEM FOR A VISUAL APCH & TOLD THEM TO CONTACT MEIGS TOWER. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE SOUTH SATELLITE SECTOR #3 CTLR AT TRACON WAS IN CONTACT WITH MEIGS TOWER TO PROVIDE INFO ABOUT N600TA CONCERNING ANOTHER MATTER & HAD RELEASED N484SC FOR A SOUTH- BOUND DEPARTURE. WHEN THE SECTOR #3 CTLR PROVIDED THE RELEASE, HE WAS UNAWARE N600TA HAD BEEN CLRD FOR A VISUAL APCH. WHEN N600TA CONTACTED MEIGS TOWER, THE MEIGS TOWER CTLR THOUGHT IT WAS ON A VFR ARRIVAL. VIS RESTRICTED BY FOG & HAZE.
Probable cause
THE TRACON SUPERVISOR FAILED TO COMPLY WITH THE ESTABLISHED VISUAL MINIMA CRITERIA AND HIS INCORRECT ISSUANCE OF VISUAL APPROACH TO AN ARRIVING AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88IA074
- Event ID
- 20001213X25232
- Case number
- CHI88IA074
- 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: da3b06a26f8be9ac478dfece067f520d5d4fb02a79fad4a06de2e8aa04fe2f70; retrieved 2026-09-23T10:52:33.241Z.