Sat-Air Swearingen SA-227 accident
Swearingen SA-227 · Accident on approach
From Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) to London-Corbin Airport/Magee Field (LOZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85MA100
- 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 SA-227
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-227
- 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
- N568UP
- Operator
- Sat-Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), Louisville, KYTo London-Corbin Airport/Magee Field (LOZ)
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 › Airspeed, excessive
- Pilot in command › Go-around, not performed
- Pilot in command › Proper touchdown point, not attained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of London, KY, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARRIVAL, AT 0540:31, THE CAPT WAS CLRD FOR AN RNAV RWY 5 APCH & WAS TOLD TO CONTACT LONDON FSS ON 121.6 MHZ, 'NOW.' HOWEVER, HE DID NOT MAKE THE RADIO CALL UNTIL APRX 3 MIN LATER. THE ACFT BROKE OUT OF THE WX AT ABOUT 1000' & 1 MI FM THE ARPT (BEFORE THE RADIO CALL). AT THAT TIME, THE RWY LIGHTS WERE NOT ON. THE CAPT THEN ADVISED THE FSS TO TURN ON THE RWY LIGHTS & HE MADE A LEFT PATTERN TO CIRCLE BACK & LAND. DRG THE NEXT APCH, THE ACFT WAS HI & FAST ON FINAL APCH & TOUCHED DOWN LONG. THE 1ST OFFICER RECOMMENDED THAT THE CAPT MAKE A GO-AROUND, BUT THE CAPT ELECTED TO CONT THE LNDG. WHEN THE CAPT REALIZED THAT HE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO STOP ON THE REMAINING RWY, HE RETRACTED THE GEAR. THE ACFT THEN SLIDOFF THE END OF THE RWY, WENT OVR AN EMBANKMENT, BECAME AIRBORNE FOR ABOUT 140', THEN IMPACTED IN A LARGE RAVINE AREA. THE WEIGHT MANIFEST WAS FND TO BE IN ERROR. AFTER ALLOWING FOR A 500 LB FUEL BURN-OFF, THE LANDING WEIGHT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 14,668 LBS. THE MAX GROSS WT LIMIT WAS 14,500 LBS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85MA100
- Event ID
- 20001214X35491
- Case number
- CHI85MA100
- 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: 95667e075ba7bba235a549adbf5e44d75d8047e7d6cfd10b8c438de868d62688; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:31:31.614Z.