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NYC85FA163 · Mitsubishi MU-2B-26

11 Jul 1985 · Southbridge, MA, United States

Mitsubishi MU-2B-26 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

From Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
NYC85FA163
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
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

Mitsubishi MU-2B-26

Aircraft type
Mitsubishi MU-2
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
N727MA
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT), Manchester, NHTo 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 91F: Special Flt Ops.
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
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
Loss of control in flight
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 › Level off, not possible
  • Proper descent rate › Exceeded
  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Southbridge, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

DURING LNDG THE ACFT IMPACTED HARD AND SKIDDED DOWN THE RWY BEFORE IT WENT OFF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RWY. THE LEFT MAIN WHEEL SEPARTED AND THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED. BOTH PLTS STATED THE LNDG APCH WAS NORMAL UNTIL THE ACFT WAS APRX 15 FTABOVE THE RWY AT WHICH TIME THE ACFT ABRUPTLY DESCENDED AND IMPACTED HARD WITH THE RWY. PRIOR TO THE IMPACT, THE ACFT WAS CONFIGURED WITH 20 DEGS OF FLAPS AND LNDG GEAR WAS DOWN AND LOCKED. THE AIRSPEED WAS 105 KTS. EXAMINATION OF THE ACFT DISCLOSED THAT THE AFT MAIN GEAR DOORS WERE OPEN AND THE NOSE DOWN LOCK LIMIT SWITCH WAS DEFECTIVE. THE SWITCH IS REQUIRED TO CLOSE THE AFT MAIN GEAR DOOR. THE FLIGHT TEST BY THE MFG DETERMINED THAT OPENED AFT MAIN GEAR DOOR HAS NONE TO UNNOTICIABLE EFFECT ON STALL SPEED. ACFT SPEED AT TOUCHDOWN BASED ON COMPUTATIONS FROM PROP SLASH MARKS WAS 86 KTS. THE STALL SPEED OF ACFT AT PREVAILING WEIGHT & FLAPS CONFIGURATION IS BELOW THIS SPEED, THE ACFT WEIGHT WAS APRX 9000 LBS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC85FA163
Event ID
20001214X37243
Case number
NYC85FA163
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: 75e2f2cb9d5e81d21902e3804e6802950f897c191c41b88a8c99de7d756fa1ab; retrieved 2026-09-23T16:53:18.377Z.