Era Jet Alaska Gates Learjet 24D accident
Gates Learjet 24D · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) to Juneau International Airport (JNU)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA86MA018
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Unknown
Gates Learjet 24D
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 24
- 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
- N456JA
- Operator
- Era Jet Alaska
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AKTo Juneau International Airport (JNU), Juneau, AK
- 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 initial 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Copilot/second pilot › Unsafe/hazardous condition, not identified
- Descent › Premature
- Flight/navigation instrument(s) › Improper use of
- Pilot in command › Became lost/disoriented, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Juneau, AK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARRIVAL TO PICK UP A MED-EVAC PATIENT, THE FLT WAS CLRD FOR AN LDA-1 RWY 8 APCH VIA THE ASORT TRANSITION. THUS, THE PLT SHOULD HAVE CONTD SE ON J-541 TWD THE SSR VORTAC & INTERCEPTED THE LOCALIZER (LOC) AT ASORT; THEN TRACK INBND ON THELOC (062 DEG), USING I-JDL FREQ 109.9 MHZ (FREQ FOR LOC & CO-LOCATED DME). AFTER ASORT, MIN ALT WAS 6500' TO DIBOL INTX,5100' TO LYNNS INTXN & 3400' TO THE FAF AT BARLO INTXN. DME FM I-JDL TO THE INTXNS WAS: 18.2, 13.5 & 8 MI. DME FM SSR (SOUTH OF LOC TRACK) TO THE INTXNS WAS 11.2, 12.7 & APRX 16 MI. FLT RPRTD ASORT INBND WHILE DSCNDG THRU APRX 9500'. LASTRDO CALL WAS 30 SEC LATER WHILE DSCNDG THRU 8200', 14 MI WEST OF DIBOL. APRX 4 MI WEST OF DIBOL, ACFT IMPACTED MTN SIDE AT 3500' MSL. NO PREIMPACT MECH MALFUNCTION WAS FND. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT BOTH NAV'S WERE TUNED TO 109.9 MHZ, BUT DME CTL HEAD WAS INADVERTENTLY LEFT IN 'HOLD' PSN (LOCKING DME TO SSR RATHER THAN I-JDL) & CREW BEGAN A PREMATURE DSCNT.JUNEAU WX WAS IN PART: 600' SCATTERED, 3000' OVERCAST, 7 MI VISIBILITY. PIC WAS CURRENTLY FLYING BOTH LEARJET & DHC-7.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA86MA018
- Event ID
- 20001214X38166
- Case number
- SEA86MA018
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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 1985-10-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a91f82a7b689f7e52130faa4efb5d3d8c75d45223da0c4c674d249d910d4ca0a; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:24:37.320Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N456JA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.