Simmons Airlines Embraer EMB-110P1 accident
Embraer EMB-110P1 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA86AA021
- 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
- 3 · 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
Embraer EMB-110P1
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-110
- 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
- N1356P
- Operator
- Simmons Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), DETRIOT, MITo 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Decision height, not identified
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARRIVAL AT 2125 EST, SIMMONS AIRLINE FLT 1746 WAS ADZD BY WURTSMITH AFB APCH CTL THAT THE 2052 EST WX AT PHELPS COLLINS ARPT WAS: SKY PARTIALLY OBSCD, CEILING 100' OVERCAST, VIS 1/2 MI WITH LGT DRIZZLE & FOG, & TO EXPECT AN ILS APCH. HOWEVER, AT 2119, A SPL WX OBS WAS TAKEN WHICH SHOWED THE VIS HAD DECREASED TO 3/8 MI, WHICH WAS BLO MINS. THIS INFO HAD NOT REACH WURTSMITH UNTIL SOMETIME LATER SINCE THE SYS FOR SENDING WX FROM PELLSTON FSS TO WURTSMITH WAS NOT AUTOMATED & WAS SLOW. FLT 1746 CONTD THE APCH, BUT THE PLTS DID NOT CLRLY SEE THE RWY LGTS, SO THEY MADE A MISSED APCH &ELECTED TO MAKE A 2ND ILS APCH. AT 2146, ANOTHER SPL WX OBS WAS TAKEN WHICH SHOWED THE VIS HAD DECREASED FURTHER TO 1/4 MI. THIS INFO WAS PROVIDED TO THE SIMMONS STATION MGR AT ALPENA, WHO TRIED TO CONTACT FLT 1746, BUT WAS UNABLE. AT APRX 2200 EST, THE ACFT HIT TREES & CRASHED ABOUT 1-1/2 MI SHORT OF RWY 1. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT FLT 1746 HAD CONTD BLO THEILS GLIDE SLOPE & DECISION HEIGHT (DH) WITHOUT OBTAINING VISUAL REFERENCE OF THE RWY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA86AA021
- Event ID
- 20001213X33027
- Case number
- DCA86AA021
- 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 1986-03-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5864c2baaa0aceaf68de26a6cc84d38cca054b21ed483187cf0083f5a1012c5b; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:23:46.326Z.