SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834
Sky West Airlines Swearingen SA-226TC and Mooney M-20C · Mid-air collision
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA87MA018
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 10 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 10
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Swearingen SA-226TC
- Flight
- SKW834
- 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
- N163SW
- Operator
- Sky West Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 8
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From Pocatello Regional Airport (PIH), Pocatello, IDTo Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UT
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Mooney M-20C
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M-20
- 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
- N6485U
- Operator
- Chester A. Baker · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 2
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- None · no survivors
- Route
- From U42 · W. JORDAN, UTTo not recorded
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Became lost/disoriented, inattentive
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Became lost/disoriented, inattentive
- Pilot of other aircraft › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
On Thursday, January 15, 1987, SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834, a Swearingen SA-226TC (Metro II), and a Mooney M20 were involved in a midair collision at 12:52 MST (UTC−7) near Kearns, Utah, a suburb southwest of Salt Lake City. All ten aboard the two aircraft were killed: two pilots and six passengers aboard the Metro II and two aboard the Mooney.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators primarily blamed the small plane pilots for wandering into restricted airspace, but a judge later assigned 51% responsibility to FAA air traffic controllers.
Collision
The SkyWest Airlines aircraft, which was 30 minutes late from Pocatello, Idaho, was on final approach to Runway 34 of Salt Lake City International Airport, piloted by Captain Michael Gambill and First Officer Walter Ray. The Mooney M20 took off from Salt Lake City Municipal Airport II (now South Valley Regional Airport) in West Jordan, piloted by flight instructor Paul Lietz and his student, Chester Baker, the plane's owner.
The air traffic controller watching the area failed to recognize the danger when the Mooney pilots wandered into restricted airspace. The controller did not notice the small plane on the radar and directed the SkyWest pilots to turn. Making that turn, the SkyWest plane collided with the Mooney. The collision was at an approximate altitude of 7000 ft above sea level, about a half-mile (800 m) above ground level.
Residents below the collision reported a "big boom," and then, "parts were flying everywhere". The main section of the SkyWest aircraft slid through a chain-link fence, stopping in the middle of a suburban street. Wreckage scattered over a one-mile-square area, with body parts hanging from trees. Authorities had to open a temporary morgue at a nearby church as they recovered the victims.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The NTSB investigation ultimately blamed the Mooney M20 instructor pilot for straying into the Salt Lake City airport radar service area. The investigation also criticized the lack of a Mode-C transponder and the limitations of air traffic control collision protection.
In late 1990, U.S. district judge Thomas Greene ruled FAA air traffic controllers were 51% responsible for the crash and the Mooney pilots were 49% at fault.
Text from the Wikipedia article “SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834” (revision 1345898432, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
THE TWO ACFT, A SWEARINGEN SA-226TC AND A MOONEY M-20, COLLIDED IN FLT AT APRX 7000 FT MSL IN THE SALT LAKE CITY ARPT (SLC) RADAR SERVICE AREA OVER KEARNS, UT. THE SA-226 WAS APPROACHING SLC FOR LNDG AND THE M-20 WAS CONDUCTING A LOCAL TRNG FLT WHEN THE COLLISION OCCURRED. THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT THE SA-226 INITIATED EVASIVE ACTION IN THE FINAL MOMENTS BEFORE THE COLLISION. THERE WAS ALSO AN EXCLAMATORY EXPLETIVE ON THE RADIO AT ABOUT THE TIME THE RADAR TARGETS OF THE TWO ACFT MERGED. THE FINAL CONTROLLER SAW A RADAR TARGET EARLIER THAT WAS POSSIBLY THE M-20 BUT DID NOT SEE IT AT THE TIME OF THE COLLISION. THE M-20 HAD NO MODE-C TRANSPONDER TO HELP IDENTIFY IT ON RADAR. THE M-20 SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN WHERE IT WAS WITHOUT CLEARANCE. THE PLT OF THE SA-226 HAD BEEN ADVISED OF ANOTHER ACFT TO ITS LEFT AND ASKED TO REPORT SIGHTING IT. THE M-20 APPROACHED THE SA-226 FROM THE RIGHT SIDE. AFTER THE COLLISION BOTH OF THE ACFT DESCENDED TO AN UNCONTROLLED CRASH. THE WEATHER AT THE TIME OF THE COLLISION WAS VMC WITH VISIBILITY OF 30 MILES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834
- Article
- SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834
- Revision
- 1345898432 · 2026-03-28 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7538136
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA87MA018
- Event ID
- 20001213X30060
- Case number
- DCA87MA018
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834" (page 35107475, revision 1345898432); merged with NTSB case DCA87MA018 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record DCA87MA018: NTSB API eventDate, eventTimeUtc and eventTimeUtcOffsetHours (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record DCA87MA018
- Map position
- NTSB record DCA87MA018: events decimal coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record DCA87MA018: aircraft; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record DCA87MA018: operated under Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter, Part 91: General Aviation
- Fatalities
- NTSB record DCA87MA018: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record DCA87MA018: NTSB API ongroundFatal
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834" and NTSB case DCA87MA018, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- 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.