Munz Northern Airlines Britten-Norman BN-2A accident
Britten-Norman BN-2A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Nome Airport (OME) to Elim Airport (ELI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC82DA057
- 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
Britten-Norman BN-2A
- Aircraft type
- Britten Norman BN-2
- 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
- N39MN
- Operator
- Munz Northern Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nome Airport (OME), Nome, AKTo Elim Airport (ELI), ELIM, AK
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Fatigue
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Foreign object damage
- Propeller system/accessories, blade › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, A PROPELLER BLADE TIP FAILURE OCCURRED ON THE LEFT ENGINE. ABOUT 9 INCHES OF THE BLADE TIP SEPARATED AND ENTERED THE TOP SIDE OF THE FUSELAGE ABOUT 1 FT BEHIND THE PILOT'S HEAD. THE BLADE TIP SEVERED THE THROTTLE, FUEL MIXTURE, CARBURETOR HEAT AND PROPELLER CONTROL CABLES TO THE LEFT ENGINE. ALSO, THE AILERON CABLE BECAME JAMMED IN THE FULL LEFT POSITION AND THE RIGHT ENGINE CABLES WERE DAMAGED. REPORTEDLY, THE LEFT ENGINE WENT TO IDLE POWER AND THE PILOT HAD TO SWITCH THE MAGNETOS OFF IN ORDER TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF. A METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE PROPELLER BLADE (HARTZELL MODEL: HC-C1YK-2CUF, PN FC8477A-4) HAD FAILED FROM FATIGUE. THE FATIGUE CRACK ORIGINATED AT A DENT IN THE LEADING EDGE OF THE PROPELLER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC82DA057
- Event ID
- 20020917X02650
- Case number
- ANC82DA057
- 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: 94d56caffcfe6d85d297d39ca3e95ad0bfe35da0180e4f4674ff697ecde3a0b0; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:08:40.246Z.