FTW85FA259 · Swearingen SA-26AT
Swearingen SA-26AT · Accident: decompression en route
From Del Rio International Airport (DRT) to F60 · MCGREGORY, TX
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA259
- 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
- General aviation
- 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-26AT
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-26
- 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
- N199TA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Del Rio International Airport (DRT), Del Rio, TXTo F60 · MCGREGORY, TX
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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 · climb to 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
- Decompression
- 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
- Fuselage › Decompression
- Fuselage › Separation
- Fuselage, skin › Separation
- Fuselage, stringer › Fatigue
- Fuselage, stringer › Previous damage
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, not performed
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, major repair, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS THE ACFT WAS CLIMBING THRU 14,800' FOR 19,000', THE PLT REPORTED A RAPID DECOMPRESSION. TWO MINUTES LATER, HE REPORTED THAT HE HAS LOST THE TAIL. ACFT IMPACTED IN AN INVERTED FLAT SPIN AND THE TAIL AND A SECTION OF EMPENNAGE WERE FOUND ABOUT 3/4 MILE AWAY FROM MAIN WRECKAGE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT A SKIN SEAM HAD SPLIT OPEN ALONG A 54' SPAN IN AN AREA WHERE 2 PIECES OF 'L' SHAPED CHANNEL HAD BEEN RIVETED TOGETHER TO FORM A STRINGER. NORMALLY THE STRINGER WOULD BE MADE USING A SINGLE PIECE OF 'T' SHAPED CHANNEL. THE NON-STANDARD STRINGER HAD BEEN FABRICATED DURING REPAIRS MADE ON THE ACFT FOLLOWING A GEAR UP LANDING 7 YRS PRIOR TO THIS ACCIDENT. ANALYSIS REVEALED THAT THE RIVETS HOLDING THE 'L' CHANNELS TOGETHER AND FAILED IN FATIGUE DUE TO TENSILE CYCLIC LOADING WHENEVER THE ACFT WAS PRESSURIZED. ACFT HAD A HISTORY OF PRESSURIZATION PROBLEMS FOLLOWING THE REPAIR THAT WAS NOT PROPERLY PERFORMED OR INSPECTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA259
- Event ID
- 20001214X36775
- Case number
- FTW85FA259
- 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: 54fa1aeae2a3c6ae1a13026a70d48fc4eff7728faa43fe410638575019e5bafb; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:58:36.112Z.