DEN87FA003 · Mitsubishi MU-2B-20
Mitsubishi MU-2B-20 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN87FA003
- 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
Mitsubishi MU-2B-20
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N3MU
- Operator
- Gene Gartke
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, IL
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, not corrected
- Electrical system, circuit breaker › Open
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vref), below
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not followed
- Pilot in command › Diverted attention
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Propeller governor control, linkage › Incorrect
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACFT HAD BEEN REPOSSESSED AND WAS BEING FERRIED FROM GRAND JUNCTION, CO, TO CHICAGO, IL, WITH EN ROUTE STOP AT DENVER, CO. AFTER TAKEOFF FROM DENVER, LANDING GEAR WOULD NOT RETRACT. PLT MADE SEVERAL ATTEMPTS WITHOUT SUCCESS. HE ELECTED TO RETURN TO DENVER. PLT SAID THAT ON FINAL APCH THE RIGHT ENG BEGAN SURGING AND THE LEFT ENG WOULD NOT INCREASE PWR. ACFT MADE HARD LANDING ON RWY, BREAKING LEFT WING. INVESTIGATION REVEALED BOTH SPEED LEVERS WOULD NOT FUNCTION BECAUSE ENG PROP GOVERNORS AND UNDERSPEED FUEL GOVERNOR RESET ARMS, SPLINED ONTO UNDERSPEED FUEL GOVERNOR SHAFTS, WERE POSITIONED ON OPPOSITE SIDE OF SPEED LEVER ACTUATING ARMS. LANDING GEAR FUNCTIONED NORMALLY DURING SWING TESTS. IT WAS LATER LEARNED THAT RIGHT MAIN TIRE HAD BLOWN ON TAKEOFF 3 DAYS EARLIER AND REQUIRED REPAIR. MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL OPENED THE LANDING GEAR CIRCUIT BREAKERS TO PRECLUDE INADVERTENT GEAR RETRACTION. PLT SAID HE CHECKED CIRCUIT BREAKERS WHEN GEAR FAILED TO RETRACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN87FA003
- Event ID
- 20001213X34946
- Case number
- DEN87FA003
- 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: 2860c84aedfd5e25e66e6782deeb24b51b0a71141125a18c6139a35d65d63faa; retrieved 2026-09-23T13:51:33.651Z.