SMB Stage Line Convair 640 (340D) accident
Convair 640 (340D) · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to OKC Will Rogers World Airport (OKC)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW88MA021
- 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
- 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
Convair 640 (340D)
- Aircraft type
- Convair 640
- 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
- N3411
- Operator
- SMB Stage Line
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, ILTo OKC Will Rogers World Airport (OKC), Oklahoma City, OK
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- 1 engine
- All engines
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Crew/group coordination, improper
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, inattentive
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CAPT WAS CROSS-FEEDING BOTH ENGINES FROM THE RIGHT TANK WHILE THE FIRST OFFICER (F/O) WAS FLYING, WITHOUT INFORMING THE F/O. THE CAPT THEN LEFT THE COCKPIT WHILE CROSS-FEEDING. BOTH TANK VALVES AND THE RIGHT BOOST PUMP WERE ON. THE RIGHT TANK RAN DRY, THE RIGHT ENGINE FAILED, AND THE PROP AUTOFEATHERED WHILE THE CAPT WAS ABSENT. THE CAPT RETURNED, TURNED ON THE LEFT BOOST PUMP, BUT LEFT THE RIGHT BOOST PUMP AND THE VALVES OPEN, AND ATTEMPTED TO RESTART THE RIGHT ENGINE. THE LEFT ENGINE THEN FAILED BUT THIS WAS NOT RECOGNIZED BY THE CREW. THE ELEC SYS FAILED DUE TO THE ATTEMPTED RESTARTS AND THE FACT THAT NON-ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT WAS NOT TURNED OFF. THE CAPT DID NOT APPLY SUFFICIENT PULL TO THE EMERGENCY GEAR HANDLE TO LOWER THE GEAR MANUALLY. THE ACFT WAS LANDED ON A SHORT WET SOD RUNWAY, WITH THE GEAR AND FLAPS UP, AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED. THE ACFT RAN OFF THE END OF THE RUNWAY, THROUGH A DITCH, ACROSS A ROAD, AND INTO TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW88MA021
- Event ID
- 20001213X32341
- Case number
- FTW88MA021
- 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: a22e1a2c4cdbf6f5e7f835349b53a69741d999de356561d0b665858a4070028b; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:36:09.637Z.