Regional Express Cessna 402 accident
Cessna 402 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure
From Pocatello Regional Airport (PIH) to Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA85FA110
- 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
- 1 · 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
Cessna 402
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N402CS
- Operator
- Regional Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pocatello Regional Airport (PIH), Pocatello, 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Corroded
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Failure, total
- Exhaust system, manifold/pipe › Leak
- Miscellaneous › Fire
- Wing › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTURE & LEVEL OFF, THE PLT REPORTED AN ENG MALFUNCTION & INITIATED A RETURN TO THE ARPT. ABOUT 2 MIN LATER, HE REPORTED AN ENG FIRE & DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. APRX 1 MIN THEREAFTER, THE RGT WING SEPARATED FROM THE ACFT & THE PLANE CRASHED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED EXTENSIVE INFLT FIRE DAMAGE IN THE AREA OF SEPARATION. A 2.5 BY 3 INCH HOLE WAS FOUND IN THE RGT INBOARD EXHAUST TUBE, PN 0850712-6. IT WAS ORIENTED TOWARD THE ACCESSORY COMPARTMENT WITHNUMEROUS FUEL & OIL LINES WHICH WERE FIRE DAMAGED & CHARRED. ALSO, MUCH OF THE ENG SUPPORT STRUCTURE & WING SPAR WERE MELTED IN THAT AREA. AN EXAM OF THE EXHAUST TUBE REVEALED ITS WALLS WERE THIN, BRITTLE & DISCOLORED IN THE AREA OF THE RUPTURE & SEVERAL AREAS OF CRACKS & SMALL HOLES WERE FOUND. THE EXHAUST TUBE HAD 5862 HRS OF TOTAL SERVICE & 1762 HOURS SINCE IT WAS OVERHAULED. RECORDS SHOWED THAT AD 75-23-08 HAD BEEN COMPLIED WITH DURING THE LAST INSPECTION, 25 FLT HRS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA85FA110
- Event ID
- 20001214X36601
- Case number
- SEA85FA110
- 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 1985-05-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 88bd2cae43d874c98d999a9f8b52065e8b3a080f23f85ebbb3fe079c81bbeaad; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:25:56.069Z.