Express Airlines British Aerospace BAE-3101 accident
British Aerospace BAE-3101 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88FA027
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
British Aerospace BAE-3101
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace BAE-3101
- 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
- N331PX
- Operator
- Express Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TNTo 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 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Flare, improper
- Pilot in command › Planned approach, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CAPT STATED THAT HE HAD PLANNED THE APPROACH AT A HIGHER-THAN-NORMAL AIRSPEED AND ALTITUDE DUE TO A REPORTED LOW LEVEL WINDSHEAR. AT 400 FEET AGL THE ACFT ENTERED A LIGHT DOWNDRAFT BUT THE CREW CORRECTED THE DESCENT PROFILE WITH POWER. AT 200 FEET AGL THE ACFT SUDDENLY, ACCORDING TO THE CAPT, PITCHED DOWN BEFORE IMPACTING THE RUNWAY. WITNESSES STATED THAT THE ACFT PITCHED DOWN ON SHORT FINAL, LEVELED OFF, THEN SLAMMED ONTO THE RUNWAY ON ALL WHEELS. IT THEN BOUNCED, PITCHED DOWN AGAIN AND IMPACTED THE RUNWAY NOSE-FIRST. A SUBSEQUENT INSPECTION, OPERATIONAL TEST, AND TEARDOWN OF THE AIRPLANE'S STALL PROTECTION SYSTEM FOUND IT TO BE FUNCTIONING SATISFACTORILY. THE TWO POWERPLANTS ALSO TESTED WITHIN NORMAL PARAMETERS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88FA027
- Event ID
- 20001213X32758
- Case number
- MKC88FA027
- 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: 5256182a41d0a5453b407ebecad359987d5f9e623f7482c5040090f738db9460; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:34:07.314Z.