ATL87FA123 · Swearingen SA-226TC
Swearingen SA-226TC · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Wilmington International Airport (ILM) to Lumberton Regional Airport (LBT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA123
- 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
- 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
Swearingen SA-226TC
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-226
- 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
- N505LB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilmington International Airport (ILM), Wilmington, NCTo Lumberton Regional Airport (LBT), Lumberton, NC
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › All available runway, not used
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE RIGHT ENGINE FAILED DURING TAKEOFF IMMEDIATELY AFTER ROTATION 3000' DOWN THE 7,002' RWY 16. THE PLT CONTINUED THE FLT AND THE LANDING GEAR REMAINED EXTENDED. THE UNAUTHORIZED PLT RATED PAX MADE XMISSIONS TO THE TOWER. WITNESSES RPTED THAT THE ACFT REACHED APPROX. 150' THEN DESCENDED INTO TREES 20 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT OF RWY CENTERLINE AND 3,000' SOUTH OF THE ARPT. THE PRE- 1979 3RD STAGE STATOR ASSY IN THE RIGHT ENGINE DID NOT HAVE THE LATEST MANUFACTURE WELDING PROCESS/INSPECTION AND FAILED CAUSING THE UNCONTAINED TURBINE FAILURE. INSTRUMENTS IN THE WRECKAGE INDICATED THAT AN UNDETERMINABLE LOSS OF ELECTRICAL POWER OCCURRED AT THE TIME OF ENGINE FAILURE. PERFORMANCE DATA INDICATED THAT A SAFE LANDING COULD HAVE BEEN MADE ON THE REMAINING RWY PAST THE POINT OF ENGINE FAILURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA123
- Event ID
- 20001213X30575
- Case number
- ATL87FA123
- 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: 4b035426e7dd0094bd9eb086c67c7532bcca5b82d1b151bd986a514b83e1de1d; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:14:33.921Z.