DCA83AA037 · Swearingen SA226TC
Swearingen SA226TC · Accident: fire while taxiing
From Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW) to Little Rock, AR
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA83AA037
- 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
- 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
Swearingen SA226TC
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA226
- 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
- N503SS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (FTW), Dallas, TXTo Little Rock, AR
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Fire
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Arcing
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Contamination
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Fire
- Fuselage › Fire
- Fuselage, instrument/electrical panel › Arcing
- Fuselage, instrument/electrical panel › Fire
- Fuselage, instrument/electrical panel › Shorted
- Oxygen system, crew › Burst
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Hot Springs, AR, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
TURNING ONTO THE RWY THE COPLT OBSERVED A FLASH BEHIND HIS INST PANEL. HE THEN RECEIVED AN ELECT SHOCK TO HIS RIGHT ARM FROM THE RIGHT CONSOLE. A FIRE THEN ERUPTED AT THE LOWER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF HIS INST PANEL. THE CREW & PAX EVACUATED THE ACFT. THE INTERIOR OF THE ACFT WAS CONSUMED BY FIRE AS WELL AS MOST OF THE UPPER HALF OF THE FUSELAGE. EXAM OF THE RIGHT SIDE WIRE BUNDLE REVEALED NUMEROUS INDICATIONS OF ARCING BETWEEN WIRES & FROM WIRES TO GROUND. ONE WIRE WAS ARCED AT A POINT IN LINE WITH A PLASTIC OXYGEN LINE. THERE WAS ALSO AN OILY RESIDUE INSIDE THE WIRE BUNDLE. A SMALL SECTION OFTHE RIGHT BRAKE PRESSURE LINE EXHIBITED SIGNS OF ELECT ARCING. THE HYDRAULIC SYST PRESS GAGE COPPER LINE ALSO SHOWED SIGNS OF ARCING. THE PLASTIC OXYGEN LINES FROM THE THE COCKPIT SIDE OF THE FORWARD PRESSURE BULKHEAD TO THE COCKPIT OUTLETS HAD BEEN CONSUMED BY FIRE & THE OXYGEN SUPPLY WAS DEPLEATED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA83AA037
- Event ID
- 20001214X44101
- Case number
- DCA83AA037
- 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 1983-08-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a6393288c0227bb3c26c9d7e9a47d79c0d7b5757def77c66a035b7a340f19bf0; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:54:58.711Z.