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Great Western Aviation Gulfstream COMMANDER 690A COMMANDER incident

29 Dec 1988 · ST. PAUL, MN, United States

Gulfstream COMMANDER 690A COMMANDER · Incident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff

From an unrecorded airport to Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD)

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Event

NTSB case
MKC89IA048
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
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

Gulfstream COMMANDER 690A COMMANDER

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
N690MF
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo Sioux Falls Regional Airport (FSD), Sioux Falls, SD
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
Takeoff · roll/run
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
Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
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

  • Combustion assembly › Fatigue
  • Combustion assembly › Ruptured

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

NTSB narrative

THE PIC HAD PREFLTD HIS COMMANDER TURBOPROP AND PREPARED FOR TAKEOFF FM THE ST. PAUL ARPT. DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL JUST AS THE ACFT WAS ROTATED TO TAKEOFF ATTITUDE, THE RT ENG FAILED. THE PIC EASED THE ACFT BACK TO THE RWY, REDUCED PWR AND CAME TO A STOP ON THE REMAINING RWY. WITH THE REMAINING ENG THE PIC TAXIED BACK TO THE RAMP AREA. INSP OF THE ENG REVEALED A FAILED PLENUM CHAMBER, WITH A LARGE TEAR IN THE INCONEL 718 SHEET METAL. METALLURGICAL EXAM OF THE PLENUM REVEALED MULTIPLE FATIGUE FRACTURE AREAS IN THE WELDED SEAMS. THE ENG WAS SUBSEQUENTLY INSPCTD, A SERVICEABLE PLENUM WAS USED AS A REPLACEMENT AND THE ENGINE WAS RETURNED TO SERVICE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC89IA048
Event ID
20001213X27468
Case number
MKC89IA048
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: e600b3f128386a8fb756e1790457ced2edd3c7d67fde9c6b5c77cb5314a23a34; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:15:36.881Z.