Midway Commuter Dornier 228-201 accident
Dornier 228-201 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water while taxiing
From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) to Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88FA128
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Dornier 228-201 Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Dornier 228
- 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
- N259MC
- Operator
- Midway Commuter
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)To Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport (SPI), Springfield, 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 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/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
- Hydraulic system › Not engaged
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Brakes(emergency), not used
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CAPT WAS COMPLETING THE CHECKLIST DRG PAX LOADING & THE F/O SECURED THE DOOR & CAME FWD. THE CAPT STARTED THE #2 ENG& BGN SINGLE ENG TAXI WHILE ATMTG A RGT TURN TO STAY CLR OF A PARKED DORNIER (N264MC). AS N259MC BGN ROLLING FWD, THE CAPT NOTED THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING (NWS) WAS INOP. HE APPLIED NORMAL BRAKING, BUT GOT NO RESPONSE & N259MC BGN A LEFT TURN. THE CAPT SWITCHED THE HYDR PUMP FM 'NORMAL' TO 'MAN ON' (MANUAL); HOWEVER, BFR HYD PRES WAS BUILT UP BY BATTERY PWR, N259MC COLLIDED WITH N264MC. AN INV REVEALED THE #2 GENERATOR (GEN) WAS NOT CONNECTED TO THE GEN BUS. NO PART MALFUNCTION/FAILURE WAS FND DRG CHECKS OF THE ACFT SYSTEMS. THE NWS & NORMAL BRAKES WERE ELECTRO-HYDRAULICALLY ACTUATED.W/O GENERATOR PWR, THE HYD SYS, NWS & NORMAL BRAKES WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN OPERATING WITH THE HYD SW IN THE 'NORMAL' PSN. AN EMERG (PARKING) BRAKE WAS AVAILABLE, BUT IT WAS NOT USED. THE TRAINING PROGRAM, OPN MANUAL & DORNIER 228-SERIES PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK DID NOT ADDRESS SINGLE-ENG GROUND OPN OR THE EFFECTS OF AN INTERRUPTION IN GENERATOR PWR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88FA128
- Event ID
- 20001213X25890
- Case number
- CHI88FA128
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 7e6a7f81b38e3d1d85c31ec68837c9a636aef5e5f1733ba8c71aee269f3f3b2a; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:21:29.613Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N259MC; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.