Air Midwest Swearingen SA226TC accident
Swearingen SA226TC · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From ITC · Wichita, KS to TOE · Topeka, KS
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC82FA149
- 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 SA226TC
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA226
- 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
- N237AM
- Operator
- Air Midwest
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ITC · Wichita, KSTo TOE · Topeka, KS
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, replacement, not performed
- Door, landing gear › Assembly
- Door, landing gear › Disconnected
- Door, landing gear › Loose
- Landing gear, main gear › Movement restricted
- Landing gear, normal retraction/extension assembly › Jammed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Kansas City, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE APPROACH TO TOPEKA THE CREW WAS UNABLE TO EXTEND THE LEFT GEAR. THE CREW DIVERTED TO KANSAS CITY, AND AFTER MANY UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO LOWER THE LEFT GEAR ELECTED TO LAND WHEELS-UP. THE LEFT MAIN GEAR WAS JAMMED INTO THE GEARDOORS. THE AFT HINGE BOLT WAS MISSING FROM THE LEFT INBOARD GEAR DOOR, ALLOWING THE GEAR DOOR TO SHIFT JUST ENOUGH TO JAM THE GEAR AS IT STARTED TO EXTEND. 17 DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT THE LOOSE AFT HINGE WAS NOTED DURING PREFLIGHT. COMPANY MAINTENANCE WAS UNABLE TO RETORQUE THE BOLT DUE TO THE NUTPLATE ATTACHMENT RIVETS BEING STRIPPED. THIS ITEM WAS BEING CARRIED AS A DELAYED DISCREPANCY. THESE PARTS CAN ONLY BE LUBRICATED BEFORE INSTALLATION. THE ENTIRE ASSEMBLY IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO INSPECT, REMOVE, LUBRICATE, INSTALL, TORQUE & SAFETY REPLACEMENT OF THE NUTPLATE IS CONSIDERED A MAJOR UNDERTAKING THE MANFACTURER STATED THAT "SHORT CYCLING" THE GEAR AS MANY AS 18 TIMES WOULD EVENTUALLY BREAK OPEN THE GEAR DOORS. THIS EMERGENCY METHOD OF EXTENDING THE GEAR HAD NOT BEEN DISSEMINATED TO ALL OPERATORS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC82FA149
- Event ID
- 20020917X03876
- Case number
- MKC82FA149
- 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: 7f09778f0bb297478386ec70984c2be23a2576c8da72baff4c88c0b518c93a35; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:07:26.473Z.