Skyway Enterprises Flight 7101
Short 360-100 · Crashed into the sea following loss of control at night
From Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM) to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA15RA018
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground 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
- 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
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Short 360-100
- Flight
- KI7101
- Aircraft type
- Short 360
- 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
- N380MQ
- Operator
- Skyway Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM)To Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)
- Aircraft age
- About 28 years (built 1986)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On October 29, 2014, Skyway Enterprises Flight 7101, a Short 360 cargo aircraft operating a non-scheduled flight from Princess Juliana International Airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin to San Juan, Puerto Rico, crashed into the sea shortly after take-off, killing both crew members on board.
The subsequent investigation concluded that somatogravic illusion most likely led to in-flight loss of control and the resulting crash.
Accident
On the day of the accident, the Short 360-100, operated by Skyway Enterprises on a FedEx charter flight, took off from Princess Juliana's runway 28 at 18:35 local time (22:35Z). During the initial climb-out, approximately 30 seconds after takeoff and at an altitude of about 500 ft, the air traffic controller gave instructions to change heading to 230°. Shortly afterwards, the aircraft crashed into the sea approximately a mile from Maho Beach. The pilot and co-pilot were killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Sint Maarten Civil Aviation Authority issued a recommendation to the Federal Aviation Authority of the United States as a result of this accident, proposing additional regulation of part 135 air carriers. Details investigators examined include:
Final report
The Sint Maarten Civil Aviation Authority released an aircraft accident report on September 23, 2016 stating:
"The investigation believes the PF experienced a loss of control while initiating a turn to the required departure heading after take-off. Flap retraction and its associated acceleration combined to set in motion a somatogravic illusion for the PF. The PF’s reaction to pitch down while initiating a turn most likely led to an extreme unusual attitude and the subsequent crash. PM awareness to the imminent loss of control and any attempt to intervene could not be determined. Evidence show that Crew resource management (CRM) performance was insufficient to avoid the crash."
"Contributing factors to the loss of control were environmental conditions including departure from an unfamiliar runway with loss of visual references (black hole), night and rain with gusting winds."
Text from the Wikipedia article “Skyway Enterprises Flight 7101” (revision 1375073587, 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
Sources
Wikipedia article: Skyway Enterprises Flight 7101
- Revision
- 1375073587 · 2026-09-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q20007247
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA15RA018
- Event ID
- 20141030X64658
- Case number
- DCA15RA018
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Skyway Enterprises Flight 7101" (page 46521259, revision 1375073587); merged with NTSB case DCA15RA018 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA15RA018
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Skyway Enterprises Flight 7101" and NTSB case DCA15RA018, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.