Air Continental Learjet 23A accident
Learjet 23A · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA84AA027
- 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
- 3 · 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
Learjet 23A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 23
- 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
- N101PP
- Operator
- Air Continental
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR), Syracuse, NYTo 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- Flt control syst, wing spoiler system › Undetermined
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Windsor Locks, CT, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE ACFT MADE A NORMAL APCH TO RWY 33 WITH NO APPARENT ABNORMALITIES. HOWEVER, WHEN IT WAS ABOUT 200 FT OVER THE APCH LIGHTS, THEY HEARD AN INCREASE IN THE ENG THRUST & THE ACFT'S DESCENT STOPPED. TWO PLT WITNESSES THOUGHT THE AIRCREW INITIATED A GO-AROUND. IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER, THE ACFT BEGAN AN APPARENT LEVEL TURN TO THE RIGHT. AS IT TURNED THRU ABOUT 90 DEG OF TURN, THE BANK ANGLE HAD INCREASED TO NEARLY 90 DEG, THE ACFT'S NOSE DROPPED & THE PLANE CRASHED IN A NOSE LOW ATTITUDE & BURNED. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE LANDING GEAR WAS EXTENDED & THE FLAPS WERE PARTIALLY EXTENDED. THE AILERON TRIM ACTUATOR WAS IN A FULL LEFT WING DOWN POSITION & THE ELEVATOR WAS TRIMMED NEAR A FULL NOSE UP POSITION. THE RIGHT SPOILER ACTUATOR WAS FOUND IN A FULL EXTENDED POSITION & THE LEFT WAS IN A RETRACTED POSITION, WHICH WAS INDICATIVE OF AN ASYMMETRIC SPOILER CONFIGURATION. RADAR DATA INDICATED THE CREW HAD EXTENDED THE SPOILERS DURING THE LAST PART OF THE DESCENT & APCH. NO REASON FOUND FOR IMPROPER SPOILER OPERATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA84AA027
- Event ID
- 20001214X39892
- Case number
- DCA84AA027
- 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 1984-06-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fc35aa678ec9b3ff9f9c4d464454abcb41e15e6507ef9e12bb83889291a6e17f; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:28:16.301Z.