SEA88IA028 · Canadair CL600-2A12
Canadair CL600-2A12 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA) to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA88IA028
- 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
- Incident
- 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
Canadair CL600-2A12
- Aircraft type
- Canadair CL600
- 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
- N125PS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, CATo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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 91F: Special Flt Ops.
- 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 · climb to 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
- 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
- None
Cause areas
- Autopilot/flight director › Engaged
- Copilot/second pilot › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Copilot/second pilot › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, attempted
- Unknown › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Water and waste system › Leak
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE WATER FILTER HOUSING LOWER SEAL WAS MIS-INSTALLED WHICH ALLOWED WATER TO SEEP OUT AND RUN DOWN THE HOUSING CASE. OVER TIME THE WATER DROPPED ONTO A LAVATORY DRAIN LINE, FOLLOWED THE LINE TO A LOW POINT & COLLECTED ON THE STAB AUG COMPUTER BOX. THE FLUID ACCUMULATION RESULTED IN CORROSION ON ONE OF THE CIRCUIT BOARDS WITHIN THE COMPUTER BOX CAUSING A POWER IMBALANCE WITHIN THE YAW DAMPER SYSTEM AND A SUBSEQUENT UNCOMMANDED RUDDER SIGNAL. DRG THE CLIMB TO CRUISE TRANSITION A MACH TRIM FAILURE OCCURRED WHICH WOULD HAVE NECESSITATED THE USE OF THE AUTOPILOT FOR SPEEDS IN EXCESS OF 0.7 MACH. OPERATION OF THE AUTOPILOT, HOWEVER, RESULTED IN OPERATION OF THE YAW DAMPER SYSTEM WHICH HAD BEEN DETERMINED TO HAVE BEEN PRODUCING UNCOMMANDED RUDDER INPUTS. AS THE ACFT WAS LEVELLED AT FL330 AND THE AIRSPD WAS ALLOWED TO EXCEED MACH 0.7 THE COPLT ACTIVATED THE AUTOPLT WHICH POWERED THE MALFUNCTIONING DAMPER SYSTEM AND A DUTCH ROLL MANEUVER ENSUED. PIC DISCONNECTED THE AUTOPLT, EXECUTED A DESCENT AND RECOVERY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA88IA028
- Event ID
- 20001213X32785
- Case number
- SEA88IA028
- 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, damage. 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: 9cd2f06d6b33b57e5d5cc0af2dc8b282f22ad86bb92935b24a059bd7d1fdf47e; retrieved 2026-09-23T11:25:58.076Z.