Comair Flight 5360
Bombardier CL-600-2B19 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP) to Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC01IA072
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Bombardier CL-600-2B19
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier CL-600
- 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
- N933CA
- Operator
- Comair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), Minneapolis, MNTo Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Covington, KY
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Miscellaneous, bolt/nut/fastener/clamp/spring › Missing
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During climbout, an airframe vibration developed. All gauges, readouts, synoptic pages, and airplane controls were normal. The crew contacted their maintenance base and attempted to troubleshoot the problem, but could not determine its cause. The vibration remained unchanged until the airplane leveled off at 7,000 feet during an approach. At that time, the crew felt a bump, then the vibration completely ceased. The airplane landed, and taxied to the gate without further incident. Post-flight inspection revealed that the number 1 exhaust fairing was missing, and that the left, aft fuselage had a dent. The 30 bolts that would have normally attached the exhaust nozzle assembly to the exhaust frame were all missing, "without a trace." Seven months earlier, the tailpipe was found loose. Ten bolts were replaced, and the rest were re-torqued. The last inspection on the airplane had been completed about 2 weeks earlier, 105 hours prior to the incident. Company personnel had previously found cracked bolts on exhaust flanges from other engines. Laboratory examination of used bolts from another engine revealed no anomalies. Engine shop buildup and shop exit manuals were subsequently revised to make the installation and torquing of exhaust nozzle bolts a required inspection item.
Probable cause
Missing exhaust nozzle bolts for undetermined reasons. A factor was inadequate maintenance inspection of the affected area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC01IA072
- Event ID
- 20010405X00701
- Case number
- NYC01IA072
- 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: 01c60fdc0b381eedce2982506f082774eb802701580295891a3983ca954bdc9d; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:18:01.499Z.