MKC88MA134 · Learjet 35A
Learjet 35A · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) to Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88MA134
- 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
- 1 · 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
Learjet 35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- 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
- N442NE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE), Allentown, PATo Morristown Municipal Airport (MMU), Morristown, NJ
- 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 · IFR final 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Morristown, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CREW WAS POSITIONING THE AIRCRAFT IN PREPARATION FOR A REVENUE FLIGHT AND EXECUTING A NON-DIRECTIONAL BEACON (NDB) APCH TO RWY 05. THE CAPTAIN REPORTED THAT THE COPILOT WAS FLYING THE ACFT. HOWEVER, THE CAPT STATED THAT HE TOOK CONTROLOF THE ACFT DURING THE APCH AND MADE SOME CONTROL CORRECTIONS BEFORE RETURNING CONTROL OF THE ACFT TO THE COPILOT. RADARDATA INDICATED THAT ACFT CONTROL WAS ERRATIC THROUGHOUT THE APCH AND THAT THE AIRSPEED AND DESCENT RATES WERE HIGH (3000 FPM SINK RATE) SHORTLY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. THE ACFT STRUCK A FENCE SHORT OF THE RWY AND IMPACTED THE GROUND. THE CAPT SAID HE REALIZED THE ACFT WAS DRIFTING LEFT OF COURSE BUT DID NOT CORRECT IT. HE SAID HE TOLD THE COPILOT TO ADD POWER TWICE DURING THE APCH. THE COPILOT'S TRAINING HISTORY INDICATED DIFFICULTY IN CONTROL, SCAN OF INSTRUMENTS, AND WITH INSTRUMENT PROCEDURES. COMPANY MANAGEMENT DESCRIBED THE CAPT AS PASSIVE AND THE COPILOT AS AGGRESSIVE. SUPERVISION OF TNG AND OPERATIONS BY MANAGEMENT AND SURVEILLANCE OF THE COMPANY BY THE FAA WAS CONSIDERED INADEQUATE BY NTSB.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88MA134
- Event ID
- 20001213X26352
- Case number
- MKC88MA134
- 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: 5d49ab4bfae9a826aa7305a771b104d62cbf671d6f7df4cc0da7cd60b917eb6d; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:38:02.251Z.