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State of Illinois Beech 200 incident

10 May 1988 · Chicago, IL, United States

Beech 200 and Midway Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 · Incident: near collision between aircraft on approach

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Event

NTSB case
MIA88IA167
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
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

Aircraft 1 · Beech 200

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 200
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
N981LL
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI), Springfield, ILTo MEI · Chicago, IL
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
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 · McDonnell Douglas DC-9

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
N1065T
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, ILTo PHC · Philadelphia, PA
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
En route · cruise
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) › Communications, improper
  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Instructions, written/verbal, not understood
  • Radar separation › Inadequate

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

NTSB narrative

MIDWAY FLT 172 (MCDONNELL DOUGLAS DC-9, N1065T) WAS ON AN IFR DEPARTURE FROM CHICAGO MIDWAY ARPT AT THE SAME TIME THAT BEECH 200, N981LL, WAS ON AN IFR ARRIVAL FOR A VISUAL APCH TO MERRILL C MEIGS ARPT, ALTHOUGH BOTH WERE IN VMC. PREVIOUSLY, O'HARE TRACON HAD RESTRICTED EASTERLY DEPARTURES FROM MIDWAY TO NOT LESS THAN 20 MI IN-TRAIL. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE HANDOFF CONTROLLER (CTLR) AT TRACON INSTRUCTED THE CTLRS AT MIDWAY TOWER TO 'CANCEL THE RESTRICTION,' MEANING TO CANCEL THE IN-TRAIL RESTRICTION. HOWEVER, THE CTLRS AT MIDWAY THOUGHT THIS WAS IN REFERENCE TO A CLIMB RESTRICTION ON THE CANAL THREE SID WHICH FLT 172 WAS USING. SUBSEQUENTLY, FLT 172 & N981LL CONVERGED AS FLT 172 WAS CLIMBING TO 3000 FT & N981LL WAS DSCNDG TO 2000 FT. RADAR DATA SHOWED THE ACFT PASSED EACH OTHER WITH LESS THAN THE REQUIRED VERTICAL & HORIZONTAL SEPN.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA88IA167
Event ID
20001213X25749
Case number
MIA88IA167
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: 6512ad78c7c64586fa9911f0d8e1fe66b415f22433aad0a0e513cfad90186477; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:22:29.620Z.