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SkyWest Airlines Swearingen SA227AC accident

15 Dec 1986 · Salt Lake City, UT, United States

Swearingen SA227AC · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach

From Idaho County Airport (IDH) to Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)

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Event

NTSB case
SEA87FA036
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
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 SA227AC

Aircraft type
Swearingen SA227
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
N164SW
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Idaho County Airport (IDH), Idaho Falls, IDTo Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UT
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
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

  • Copilot/second pilot › Minimum descent altitude, not identified
  • Copilot/second pilot › Proper alignment, not maintained
  • Landing gear, main gear › Previous damage
  • Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE F/O WAS AT THE CONTROLS FOR THE ILS APCH TO SLC. FOG SEEDING WAS IN PROGRESS, PRODUCING VARIABLE VISIBILITIES. THE APCH COMMENCED WITH RVR WELL ABOVE CAT I MINS. AT DECISION HEIGHT(DH), THE CAPT CALLED 'LIGHTS IN SITE'. THE F/O CONTINUED THE APCH DESCENT THRU DH. THE ACFT THEN REENTERED IMC AND THE CAPT CALLED FOR MISSED APCH. THE F/O ADDED PWR AND ESTABLISHED A WINGS LEVEL, 10 DEG NOSE-UP ATTITUDE ON THE GYRO HORIZON AS THE CAPT EXECUTED CHECK LIST ITEMS. THE CAPT THEN NOTED THE ACFT WAS HEADING 20 DEGS RIGHT OF COURSE AND THE RIGHT WING DOWN ATTITUDE ON HIS GYRO HORIZON AT WHICH TIME HE CALLED 'TURN LEFT AND PULL UP.' THE ACFT LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR CONTACTED A 45 FT HIGH ILS ANTENNA STACK 1049 FT DOWN THE RWY, 400 FT RIGHT OF CENTERLINE. THIS SEPARATED THE LEFT MAIN GEAR. THE ACFT DIVERETED TO PIH WHERE ADDITIONAL DAMAGE WAS SUSTAINED DURING LANDING. TESTS SHOWED THE F/O GRYO HORIZON HAD BAD BEARINGS AND THE 'OFF' FLAG WAS INOP. THE F/O'S ALTIMETER ALSO READ 100 FT HIGH.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record SEA87FA036
Event ID
20001213X35434
Case number
SEA87FA036
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 1986-12-16.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: de8d58c3e9c468c58c558bd659ea075d9936e2fdf968c7e886a9d063fe49009a; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:46:22.113Z.