Pocono Airlines Swearingen SA 226-TC accident
Swearingen SA 226-TC · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (AVP)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC82FA021
- 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 SA 226-TC
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-226
- 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
- N341PL
- Operator
- Pocono Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Jamaica, NYTo Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (AVP), Scranton, PA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE N341PL STARTED TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 31L, A BOEING 747 WAS CLEARED TO TAXI SOUTHEAST DOWN THE OUTER/PARALLEL TAXIWAY.THE TAXIWAY WAS 375 FT RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY CENTERLINE. THE 747 STOPPED MOMENTARILY, THEN TURNED 90 DEG LEFT ONTO TAXI- WAY KK. MEANWHILE, N341PL WAS CLEARED FOR AND BEGAN TAKING OFF. THE PILOT STATED HE SAW LIGHT SNOW BEHIND THE 747, BUT WAS NOT CONCERNED SINCE THE 747 HAD STOPPED. THE TOWER CONTROLLER AND ANOTHER WITNESS REPORTED AN INCREASING AMOUNT OF SNOW BEHIND THE 747 AS IT TURNED OFF THE OUTER TAXIWAY. AFTER LIFT-OFF THE PILOT REMAINED IN GROUND EFFECT WHILE ACCELERATING TO CLIMB SPEED. HE STATED HE WAS TRAINED TO USE THIS PROCEDURE ON ALL TAKEOFFS. THE PILOT STATED THAT AFTERHE CALLED FOR GEAR RETRACTION, HE ENTERED A WHITEOUT CONDITION, LEVELED HIS WINGS FROM A ROLL, AND ENCOUNTERED A DOWN- DRAFT. THE PLANE EMERGED FROM THE SNOW CLOUD AND STRUCK THE RUNWAY ABOUT 1100 FT BEFORE PASSING BEHIND THE 747. FLIGHT SAFETY INTL STATED THAT DURING GROUND/SIMULATOR TRAINING THEY RECOMMEND A POSITIVE RATE OF CLIMB IN IMC AND AT NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC82FA021
- Event ID
- 20020917X02538
- Case number
- NYC82FA021
- 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: ef73c60011b721dbe7de38f499eb1ccdcd09b84f4e6dc8eaf7be06b716d07057; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:13:09.279Z.