DEN86FA128 · Swearingen SA226AT
Swearingen SA226AT · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Helena Regional Airport (HLN) to Billings Logan International Airport (BIL)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN86FA128
- 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
- 1 · 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
Swearingen SA226AT
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA226
- 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
- N577KA
- Operator
- Lester C. Barckley · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Helena Regional Airport (HLN), Helena, MTTo Billings Logan International Airport (BIL), Billings, MT
- 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 › Physical impairment(other cardiovascular)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON AN IFR FLT PLAN IN IMC, THE PLT EXECUTED A MISSED APPROACH AFTER FLYING A LOCALIZER BACK COURSE 27 APPROACH. DURING A SUBSEQUENT ILS RWY 09L APPROACH, RADIO AND RADAR CONTACT WITH THE ACFT WAS LOST LOST. THE ACFT WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED ON THE INBOUND APPROACH COURSE 1/2 MILE EAST OF THE SAIGE LOCATOR OUTER MARKER. THE ACFT WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT FORCES AND A POST IMPACT FIRE. THE AUTOPSY AND MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE PLT LED TO A CONCLUSION THAT HE WAS INCAPACITATED AT THE TIME OF IMPACT. THE PLTS FLT TIME WAS NOT REPORTED AND HIS LOGS WERE NOT LOCATED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN86FA128
- Event ID
- 20001213X33519
- Case number
- DEN86FA128
- 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 1986-05-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9736c762a85df14a89aca370280fa82b99c4c5ebda6a66d685f39b8fc81b643d; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:23:27.951Z.