CHI08CA074 · Swearingen SA-226AT
Swearingen SA-226AT · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Ankeny Regional Airport (IKV) to Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08CA074
- 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
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Swearingen SA-226AT
- 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
- N120SC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ankeny Regional Airport (IKV), Ankeny, IATo Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF), Miami, FL
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that it was snowing during his preflight activities and takeoff roll. A snowplow operator stated that he had cleared approximately four passes on either side of the runway centerline when the accident airplane taxied onto the runway. The pilot back-taxied on the departure runway to determine how much snow covered the runway. During the subsequent takeoff roll, at approximately 80 knots, the left main landing gear encountered some deeper snow that caused the airplane to swerve left off of the runway centerline. The pilot attempted to correct the left swerve with right rudder input, but the airplane continued off the left side of the runway. The airplane was substantially damaged when its nose landing gear impacted a snowbank.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the takeoff roll. Contributing to the accident was the snow on the runway and the snowbank.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08CA074
- Event ID
- 20080321X00355
- Case number
- CHI08CA074
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates. 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: 1453b391ae418f788417a61dba477ba231f12572d60ae45d2e0d00831389a671; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:26:57.228Z.