Atlantic Southeast Airlines Embraer BRASILIA EMB-120 BRASILIA E incident
Embraer BRASILIA EMB-120 BRASILIA E · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Drake Field (FYV) to Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC87IA034
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Embraer BRASILIA EMB-120 BRASILIA E
- Aircraft type
- Embraer BRASILIA EMB-120
- 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
- N223AS
- Operator
- Atlantic Southeast Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Drake Field (FYV), Fayetteville, ARTo Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), Fort Smith, AR
- 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
- En route · 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Reduction gear assembly › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT CREW STATED THAT THEY WERE INITIATING A DESCENT INTO FINAL APPROACH FOR A LANDING WHEN THE RIGHT ENGINE GEARBOX CHIP DETECTOR LGITH ILLUMINATED FOLLOWED BY A LOUD BANG AND SEVERE VIBRATION.WHEN THE PROPELLER WAS FEATHERED AND THE ENGINE SHUT DOWN WITH THE CONDITION LEVER THE ROTATION AND VIBRATION STOPPED, THE CREW FURTHER STATED. THE AIRCRAFT LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. A POST-INCIDENT TEARDOWN INSPECTION OF THE POWERPLANT AT THE FACTORY REVEALED A SUDDEN AND CATASTROPHIC FAILURE OF THE PROPELLER REDUCTION GEARBOX ASSEMBLY DUE TO A HIGH CYCLE, METAL FATIGUE FRACTURE ON ONE, OF TWO, HELICAL GEARS. TEARDOWN AND INSEPCTION OF THE PROPELLER ASSEMBLY REVEALED SEVERE DAMAGE TO THE COMPOSITE PLASTIC BLADE RETAINER RINGS AND METAL ACTUATOR YOKES DUE TO SUDDEN DECELERATION AND STOPPAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC87IA034
- Event ID
- 20001213X35413
- Case number
- MKC87IA034
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: f0b7ab9a801bbf675165ba1d7eca9a59c23b4602625c899e35ee1e3512e77d55; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:45:21.592Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N223AS; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, ASOA.