DEN89FA076 · Swearingen SA226TC
Swearingen SA226TC · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From St George Regional Airport (SGU) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
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
- DEN89FA076
- 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
- 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
Swearingen SA226TC Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA226
- 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
- N1010Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St George Regional Airport (SGU)To Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), Palm Springs, 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 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
- Takeoff
- 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, replacement, improper
- Landing gear, steering system › Incorrect
- Manufacturer › Procedure inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG THE TAKEOFF ROLL WITH THE COPLT AT THE CTLS, THE ACFT BEGAN TURNING TO THE LEFT. THE COPLT CORRECTED WITH RGT RUDDER, BUT AS THE TAKEOFF CONTD, THE ACFT VEERED UNCONTROLLABLY TO THE LEFT. THE TAKEOFF WAS ABORTED, BUT BEFORE STOPPING, THE ACFT TURNED FURTHER LEFT & HIT A CESSNA 172 & A UPS VEHICLE, BOTH OF WHICH WERE UNOCCUPIED. THIS WAS THE 1ST FLT AFTER MAINT ON THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING SYS. A SYS CHECK REVEALED THAT WHEN HYDRAULIC & ELECTRICAL PWR WERE APPLIED, THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING SYS WOULD DEFLECT TO THE LEFT AT A RATE OF ABOUT ONE DEGREE PER SECOND. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT WHEN MAINT WAS PERFORMED, A ONE-PIECE ARMING/POPPET VLV WAS USED TO REPLACE A TWO-PIECE VLV, WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY INSTALLED. DRG THE INSTLN, THE SMALL PART OF THE TWO-PIECE VLV (ABT THE SIZE OF A WASHER) WAS NOT REMOVED. WHEN THE ONE-PIECE VLV WAS INSTLD PROPERLY, THE SYS OPERD NORMALLY. MAINT INSTRNS & DRAWINGS DID NOT ADDRESS THE TW0- PIECE VLV & NO INSTRNS WERE FND TO INDC THE TWO PIECES OF THE OLD VLV SHOULD BE CHGD AS A PACKAGE.
Probable cause
MALFUNCTION OF THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING SYSTEM DUE TO IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING POPPET VALVE & INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE INSTRUCTIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN89FA076
- Event ID
- 20001213X27708
- Case number
- DEN89FA076
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-02-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a0b7a3bfdf79cc6a574fb8a0a43e498b17df243081c411240136a9927ea0f200; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:53:24.988Z.