Wings West Fairchild SA-227-AC accident
Fairchild SA-227-AC · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Sacramento International Airport (SMF)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX88LA303
- 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
Fairchild SA-227-AC
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild SA-227
- 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
- N2683B
- Operator
- Wings West
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Francisco, CATo Sacramento International Airport (SMF), Sacramento, CA
- 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment, inadequate
- Cooling system, cowling › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CREW STATED THAT WHILE ON THE GROUND AT SAN FRANCISCO, OIL WAS ADDED TO THE RIGHT ENGINE BY A MECHANIC. THE CAPTAIN STATED HE SAW THE SIX LATCHES DOWN AND THE COWLING HALVES WERE FLUSH. THE FIRST OFFICER DID NOT GET OUT OF THE AIRPLANE AND CHECK THE COWLING SINCE THE CAPTAIN HAD BEEN OUTSIDE WITH THE MECHANIC. DURING CRUISE FLIGHT, THE TOP HALF OF THE RIGHT ENGINE COWLING SEPARATED FROM THE AIRPLANE. DURING SEPARATION, IT HIT THE CABIN WINDOW AT ROW 4 CAUSING IT TO BREAK & DEPRESSURIZE THE CABIN. A LADY SEATED AT 4C RECEIVED A CUT ON HER RIGHT FOREARM & HER PURSE WAS 'SUCKED OUT' THE OPENING. AN EXAM OF THE FAILED PARTS OF THE NACELLE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PREEXISTING CRACKS.
Probable cause
MECHANICS FAILURE TO PROPERLY SECURE THE RIGHT ENGINE COWLING AFTER MAINTENANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX88LA303
- Event ID
- 20001213X26613
- Case number
- LAX88LA303
- 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: 5b4a80bb5f9931102fc8c3000e4e7a4646d0ec7cbd4df786712ada23eb64c08c; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:19:26.211Z.