Sun Aire Lines Swearingen SA 226TC accident
Swearingen SA 226TC · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From Imperial County Airport (IPL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX85FA185
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Swearingen SA 226TC
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-226
- 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
- CGYRD
- Operator
- Sun Aire Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Imperial County Airport (IPL), Imperial, CATo not recorded
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Gear extension, not identified
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, not attained
- Wheels up landing › Inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Los Angeles, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ON THIS LEG OF THE FLT, THE 1ST OFFICER (FO) WAS FLYING THE ACFT WHILE THE CAPTAIN (CAPT) WAS MONITORING & CONDUCTING ATC COMMUNICATIONS. REPORTEDLY, THE AIRCREW HAD FOLLOWED THE CHECKLIST DURING ARRIVAL; HOWEVER, THE ACFT WAS LANDED WITHTHE GEAR RETRACTED. WHEN THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN, PIECES OF THE R PROP BLADES BROKE OFF & ENTERED THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE FUSELAGE, BETWEEN & BELOW THE 1ST & 2ND WINDOWS. FIVE PIECES PENETRATED THE PASSENGER COMPARTMENT & SERIOUSLY INJURED A PASSENGER IN THE 1ST ROW. THE OTHER 1ST ROW PASSENGER RECEIVED MINOR INJURIES. THE CAPT STATED HE HAD PUT THE GEAR HANDLE IN THE DOWN POSITION. THE FO REMEMBERED CALLING FOR GEAR EXTENSION, BUT DID NOT RECALL ACTUALLY NOTICING THE GEARBEING LOWERED. DAMAGES INDICATED THE GEAR DOORS WERE CLOSED DURING TOUCHDOWN. THE GEAR & WARNING SYSTEMS WERE CHECKED & THEY FUNCTIONED NORMALLY. THE FO HAD PULLED THE GEAR WARNING CIRCUIT BREAKER (CB) ON THE PREV FLT, BUT HAD RESET IT. HE SPECULATED THE CB MAY NOT HAVE BEEN ALL THE WAY IN (NOT FULLY RESET); THUS, DEACTIVATING THE GEAR WARNING SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX85FA185
- Event ID
- 20001214X35946
- Case number
- LAX85FA185
- 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 1985-03-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7de746dd2ae493dbed848451e81f47e541896d2ff13530f5c0b4072f2a1972dc; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:29:42.459Z.