Bemidji Aviation Services Fairchild SA227-AC incident
Fairchild SA227-AC · Incident: landing gear collapse
From Duluth International Airport (DLH) to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN13IA059
- 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
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Fairchild SA227-AC
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild SA227
- 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
- N619BA
- Operator
- Bemidji Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Duluth International Airport (DLH), Duluth, MNTo Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), Minneapolis, MN
- Aircraft age
- About 27 years (built 1985)
- 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 · landing roll
- 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
- Landing gear collapse
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
All three green landing gear indicator lights were illuminated before the pilot landed the airplane. About 50 to 100 feet beyond the touchdown point, the left main landing gear collapsed and the airplane exited the left side of runway. A postincident examination of the airplane found two loose electrical connections to the hydraulic system and several anomalies in the hydraulic shuttle valve and the hydraulic power pack. It is likely that the hydraulic issues allowed for a movement in the landing gear shuttle valve, which resulted in an uncommanded gear unlock and subsequent collapse of the left main landing gear. The hydraulic power pack's manufacturer had issued a service letter regarding life limits on the pack; however, the operator was not in compliance with these limits at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
Loose electrical connections to the hydraulic system and anomalies in the hydraulic shuttle valve and power pack, which resulted in an uncommanded gear unlock and collapse of the left main landing gear. Contributing to the accident was the operator’s failure to comply with the life limits outlined by the hydraulic power pack’s manufacturer.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN13IA059
- Event ID
- 20121118X34829
- Case number
- CEN13IA059
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2012-11-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ea1a434e82317696fa4de0816560a7d669d9408c48572e6c400224f3249c36f3; retrieved 2026-09-15T20:27:09.652Z.