Mid Pacific Airlines Nihon YS-11A-600 accident
Nihon YS-11A-600 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Terre Haute Regional Airport, Hulman Field (HUF) to Purdue University Airport (LAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI89MA057
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Airline
- 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
Nihon YS-11A-600
- Aircraft type
- Nihon YS-11
- 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
- N128MP
- Operator
- Mid Pacific Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Terre Haute Regional Airport, Hulman Field (HUF), Terre Haute, INTo Purdue University Airport (LAF), West Lafayette, IN
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Horizontal stabilizer surface › Ice
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AN IFR FLIGHT WAS TERMINATED WITH A VISUAL APPROACH. CONDITIONS WERE CONDUCIVE TO AIRFRAME ICING. THE AIRCRAFT WAS BEING POSITIONED EMPTY, WITH A CG AT 22.1% MAC. ON SHORT FINAL, AT APPROXIMATELY 400 FT AGL, 35 DEGREES OF LANDING FLAP WAS SELECTED. THE AIRCRAFT WAS OBSERVED TO PITCH DOWNWARD TO AN UNUSUAL ATTITUDE AND TO ENTER A STEEP DESCENT. A PARTIAL RECOVERY WAS OBSERVED BEFORE THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED A DIRT HILL 500 FT SHORT OF RWY 28. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED 1/2 TO 3/4 INCH OF RIME ICE ADHERING TO THE LEADING EDGE OF THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER. NO ICE WAS FOUND ON ANY OTHER PORTION OF THE AIRFRAME. EVIDENCE IN THE COCKPIT INDICATED THAT ENGINE, PITOT, AND WINDSHIELD ANTI-ICE SYSTEMS WERE ON, BUT WING/EMPENNAGE DEICE WAS OFF. NO EVIDENCE OF A POWERPLANT OR SYSTEMS MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF CONTROL DUE TO THE IMPROPER INFLIGHT DECISIONS BY THE CREW AND THE UNDETECTED ACCUMULATION OF ICE ON THE LEADING EDGE OF THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER, DURING FLIGHT IN A FORWARD CENTER OF GRAVITY CONDITION AND EXACERBATED BY THE EXTENSION OF FULL LANDING FLAPS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI89MA057
- Event ID
- 20001213X27867
- Case number
- CHI89MA057
- 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: 9b621ba73683be7fcba60c8499c687a984ad98c67371ebbf2559f14383154ac7; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:09:19.811Z.