Midstate Airlines Swearingen SA-227 incident
Swearingen SA-227 · Incident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From AI · MKE to AI · ORD
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI82IA072
- 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
- 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 SA-227
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-227
- 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
- N192MA
- Operator
- Midstate Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From AI · MKETo AI · ORD
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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 on ground/water
- 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
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT AT THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT, THE RUNWAY WAS SLIPPERY AND THE TURN ONTO THE RUNWAY WAS DIFFICULT. THE NOSEWHEEL STEERING WAS ACTIVATED MOMENTARILY TO STRAIGHTEN THE NOSE, BUT WAS TURNED OFF PRIOR TO THE TAKEOFF ROLL. AT THE DESTINED AIRPORT THE AIRCRAFT WAS LANDED AT APPROXIMATELY 115 KTS, AS SOON AS THE NOSEWHEEL TOUCHED, THE AIRCRAFT VEERED TO THE RIGHT. FULL LEFT BRAKE AND RUDDER DID NOT CORRECT THE SWERVE. THE NOSE GEAR STEERING ACTUATOR WAS EXAMINED AND NO EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION WAS REVEALED. ACCORDING TO THE COMPANY SAFETY BULLETIN AND AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE BULLETIN, THE NOSE WHEEL STEERING SWITCH MUST BE OFF AND VERIFY THE NOSE WHEEL WILL CASTER (BY DISPLACING THE NOSE OF AIRCRAFT LEFT OR RIGHT USING BRAKES AND/OR ASYMETRIC ENGINE POWER) PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. THIS PROCEDURE IS TO BE PERFORMED BEFORE EVERY TAKEOFF WHILE TURNING ONTO THE RUNWAY. THE NOSE WHEEL STEERING MUST NOT BE ARMED UNTIL THE SUBSEQUENT LANDING IS COMPLETED AND AIRCRAFT SPEED IS REDUCED BELOW 10 KTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI82IA072
- Event ID
- 20020917X01898
- Case number
- CHI82IA072
- 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 1982-02-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 012405de4a1fcb1627cd7ac5fd3eba05874cef0356ee6dc408a2275ef6755d17; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:11:57.059Z.