DEN88FA044 · Swearingen SA-26AT
Swearingen SA-26AT · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Brenham Municipal Airport (11R) to Telluride Regional Airport (TEX)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN88FA044
- 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
- General aviation
- 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-26AT
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-26
- 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
- N4468M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brenham Municipal Airport (11R), Brenham, TXTo Telluride Regional Airport (TEX)
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 on ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Nosewheel steering, improper use of
- Pilot in command › Reversers, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A VISUAL APCH, THE PLT SAID HE ENCOUNTERED 2000 FPM DOWNDRAFTS. THE PLT STATED HE ADDED POWER AND EXECUTED A NORMAL APCH AT 120 KTS, COMPENSATING FOR DOWNDRAFTS/CROSSWINDS. AFTER TOUCHDOWN, THE PLT SAID HE DID NOT GET A BETA LIGHT ON THE RIGHT ENG. HE STATED HE BROUGHT THE PWR LEVERS 'BEHIND THE GATE INTO REVERSE.' THE ACFT DRIFTED LEFT. THE PLT SAID HE CORRECTED WITH BRAKES AND NOSEWHEEL STEERING. HE APPLIED TAKEOFF POWER AND THE ACFT VEERED RIGHT, AND RAN OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY. THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A DIRT BANK AND THEN TREES. THREE TIRE SKID MARKS WERE OBSERVED ONTHE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY. A PLT-WITNESS SAID WINDS WERE GUSTING 22-25 KTS, VARIABLE FROM 130-220 DEGREES. HE SAID THE ACFT LANDED FAST AND LONG. EXAM OF THE ENGINES AND PROPS REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION. THE ENGINE MANUFACTURER RECOMMENDS PROP REVERSE NOT BE USED ON ICY RWY OR WHEN BETA LIGHT ON ONE ENGINE DOES NOT ILLUMINATE. THE ACFT MANUFACTURER ADVISES THAT NOSEWHEEL STEERING SHOULD NOT BE USED AT SPEEDS BELOW 40 KNOTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN88FA044
- Event ID
- 20001213X32685
- Case number
- DEN88FA044
- 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 1987-12-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0e7613bc392ab925fb4fdde887926f2012f2e9855bf92ca7396def3e57f2e2ed; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:15:36.327Z.