1992 CCAir Jetstream 31 accident
British Aerospace BAE-3101 · The CCAir Jetstream 31 accident occurred on 12 March 1992
From McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) to McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92FA060
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
British Aerospace BAE-3101
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace BAE-3101
- 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
- N165PC
- Operator
- Ccair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS)To McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS)
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
- Pilot in command › Checklist, not used
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The CCAir Jetstream 31 accident occurred on 12 March 1992. On that day a British Aerospace Jetstream 31, operated by CCAir on behalf of USAir Express, was flown into terrain with its landing gear retracted two kilometres short of Knoxville McGhee Tyson Airport in Tennessee. Both pilots, who were the only people on board, were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
Before the aircraft took off, the captain dropped the checklist. Instead of demanding that it be picked up and worked through, the check captain decided to continue without using the checklist. The pilots successfully took off with the aircraft from McGhee Tyson Airport, but during the later approach for the approved touch-and-go manoeuvre on runway 23R they forgot to extend the landing gear. The aircraft consequently touched down on the runway on the underside of its fuselage, with the propellers making contact with the ground. The pilots made the aircraft climb back into the air and declared an emergency. While they were feathering the propeller of engine No. 2, they flew a turn in order to attempt a landing on runway 05L. During this, control was finally lost, whereupon the aircraft crashed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The cause of the accident was determined to be the captain's failure to make use of a checklist. This had then led to a landing on the underside of the fuselage with the landing gear retracted. Furthermore, the captain's ability to maintain an adequate airspeed after the event was criticised, which had led to the uncontrolled collision with the ground.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Jetstream 31 der CCAir 1992” (revision 252301377, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
AFTER A SERIES OF INSTRUMENT PROCEDURES, THE FLIGHT RETURNED TO KNOXVILLE AND LANDED. ON THE NEXT TAKEOFF, THE FIRST OFFICER DROPPED THE AIRPLANE'S CHECKLIST AND THE CHECK AIRMAN ELECTED TO CONTINUE THE FLIGHT WITHOUT USING THE CHECKLIST. ON THE NEXT VISUAL APPROACH, THE CHECK AIRMAN AND FIRST OFFICER ATTEMPTED A LANDING WITHOUT LOWERING THE LANDING GEAR. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN AND BOTH PROPELLER ASSEMBLIES STRUCK THE CONCRETE RUNWAY SURFACE. THE PILOT REPORTED THE GEARUP TOUCHDOWN TO THE CONTROL TOWER AND ELECTED TO GO AROUND. DURING THE CLIMBOUT THE CHECK AIRMAN LOWERED THE LANDING GEAR, ESTABLISHED A TEARDROP PATTERN FOR THE OPPOSITE RUNWAY AND FEATHERED THE RIGHT PROPELLER. CRASH FIRE RESCUE (CFR) EQUIPMENT WAS ALERTED AND WAS IN POSITION FOR THE SECOND LANDING ATTEMPT. WHILE ON SHORT FINAL, THE CHECK AIRMAN CALLED FOR MAX POWER, A REDUCTION IN THE FLAP SETTING, AND INITIATED A SINGLE ENGINE GO-AROUND BELOW 200 FEET. THERE IS NO OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE FOR A SINGLE ENGINE GO-AROUND BELOW 200 FEET. THE AIRPLANE CLIMBED BRIEFLY AND CRASHED INVERTED ABOUT 7500 FEET FROM THE APPROACH END OF THE RUNWAY.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO USE THE AIRPLANE CHECKLIST WHICH RESULTED IN A GEAR UP LANDING; AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED WHICH RESULTED IN AN UNCONTROLLED COLLISION WITH THE GROUND.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Jetstream 31 der CCAir 1992
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 252301377 · 2025-01-16 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q90500224
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ATL92FA060
- Event ID
- 20001211X14207
- Case number
- ATL92FA060
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Jetstream 31 der CCAir 1992" (page 11236581, revision 252301377), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ATL92FA060 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record ATL92FA060: events.ev_date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record ATL92FA060
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record ATL92FA060: 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 ATL92FA060: operated under Part 91: General Aviation
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities (the NTSB record states no total)
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record ATL92FA060: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "1992 CCAir Jetstream 31 accident" and NTSB case ATL92FA060, 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.
- The date is the UTC date the NTSB stores; the local date may be a day earlier.