Skybus Boeing 727-214 accident
Boeing 727-214 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to Quad City International Airport (MLI)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA86LA044
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Boeing 727-214
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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
- N545PS
- Operator
- Skybus
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo Quad City International Airport (MLI), Moline, IL
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Fire warning system, powerplant › False indication
- Fire warning system, powerplant › Shorted
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Las Vegas, NV, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AFTER ACTIVATION OF NO 1 ENGINE FIRE WARNING SIGNALS A SECOND TIME, FLT CREW DECLARED EMERG AND RETURNED FOR LNDG. FUEL DUMP WAS SEEN BY SOME GRND OBSERVERS AS SMOKE TRAIL AND THIS WAS REPORTED TO FLT CREW. ACFT WAITING TAKEOFF REPORT THAT NO SMOKE OR FIRE WAS VISIBLE BUT FUEL DUMP STILL IN PROGRESS WAS OVERRIDDEN BY OTHER TRANSMISSIONS. EMERG EVACUATION VIA SLIDES WAS INITIATED AFTER ACFT CAME TO A STOP ON RUNWAY. EIGHT PASSENGERS SUSTAINED REPORTED INJURIES DURING EVACUATION. FIRE WARNING TRACED TO SHORT-CIRCUIT IN SYSTEM; ACFT RETURNED TO SERVICE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA86LA044
- Event ID
- 20010110X00270
- Case number
- SEA86LA044
- 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, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1986-01-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3e58b692eb4fa8645ee28424daff782490be81ca50ae3deb6211131809f03951; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:09:24.377Z.