USAir Boeing 737-200A incident
Boeing 737-200A · Incident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA89IA071
- 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
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Boeing 737-200A
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N283AU
- Operator
- USAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), Pittsburgh, PATo not recorded
- 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 · 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Kansas City, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A LOCALIZER BACK COURSE APPROACH TO RWY 27 THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH FOUR ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION CABLES, LOCATED 75 FT AGL, APRX 7,000 FT SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. THE CREW EXECUTED A MISSED APCH & LANDED UNEVENTFULLY IN SALINA, KS. THE SAFETY BOARD FOUND THAT THE CREW DID NOT ADEQUATELY REVIEW APCH CHARTS. FIRST OFFICER MISIDENTIFIED LIGHTS ON GROUND WHICH INFLUENCED CAPT'S SUBSEQUENT MISIDENTIFICATION. ATC FAILED TO PROVIDE ACCURATE WX TO THE CREW, FAILED TO VECTOR THE AIRPLANE TO JOIN THE LOCALIZER OUTSIDE THE FINAL APCH FIX AND COMMITTED OTHER ERRORS IN HANDLING THE FLIGHT. AN FAA INSPECTOR, CONDUCTING AN EN ROUTE INSPECTION OF THE FLIGHT, DID NOT INFORM THE CREW OF THE ERRORS THEY WERE COMMITTING IN THE PLANNING AND EXECUTION OF THE APCH. CREW DID NOT EXECUTE MISSED APPROACH WHEN THEY ENCOUNTERED FULL-SCALE LOCALIZER DEFLECTION INSIDE THE FINAL APCH FIX. (NTSB/AAR-90/04)
Probable cause
THE FLIGHTCREW'S FAILURE TO ADEQUATELY PREPARE FOR AND EXECUTE A NONPRECISION APPROACH AND THEIR SUBSEQUENT PREMATURE DESCENT BELOW MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE. CONTRIBUTING TO THE CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT WAS THE INADEQUATE AND DEFICIENT SERVICES PROVIDED TO THE FLIGHTCREW BY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL PERSONNEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA89IA071
- Event ID
- 20001213X29334
- Case number
- DCA89IA071
- 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 1989-09-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c4ec0a8925adc2e3387bad63112704b7274898a8d3e05660907d7feb5c5cef65; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:08:28.092Z.