Buffalo Express Cessna 402B accident
Cessna 402B · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) to Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI87FA176
- 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
- 1 · 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
Cessna 402B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N3742C
- Operator
- Buffalo Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, ILTo Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), Kansas City, MO
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Induction air control, linkage › Loose
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), disregarded
- Pilot in command › Propeller feathering, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ON INITIAL CLIMB THE PILOT REPORTED 'JUST LOST ONE', FOLLOWED BY A LOSS OF CONTROL AND DESCENT INTO A RESIDENTIAL AREA. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED A LOOSE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE LEFT ENGINE THROTTLE SERRATED WASHER AND THE SERRATED SHAFT. THE ENGINE HAD BEEN REMOVED AND REINSTALED A FEW FLIGHT HOURS PRIOR TO THE OCCURRENCE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL TO PERFORM PROPER INSTALLATION OF THE LEFT THROTTLE LINKAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI87FA176
- Event ID
- 20001213X31434
- Case number
- CHI87FA176
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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 1987-07-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5a947461f800d20814685c63f775cb986a03eb28637733494231bdafbed3e355; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:13:53.415Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N3742C; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.