2010 Airnorth accident
Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia · The 2010 Airnorth crash occurred on 22 March 2010
From Darwin International Airport / RAAF Darwin (DRW) to Darwin International Airport / RAAF Darwin (DRW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ENG10RA022
- 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
- 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 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
Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-120
- 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
- VH-ANB
- Operator
- Airnorth
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Darwin International Airport / RAAF Darwin (DRW)To Darwin International Airport / RAAF Darwin (DRW)
- 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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 › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Psychological
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
The 2010 Airnorth crash occurred on 22 March 2010. On that day, an Airnorth Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia, which was being used for a training flight, crashed at Darwin Airport. The two pilots on board were killed in the accident.
Accident sequence
The Embraer was to carry out a check flight on that day, during which the routine check of the instrument flying proficiency of the captain being checked was to take place. The aircraft lined up for takeoff on runway 29 of Darwin Airport at taxiway E2. The check captain informed air traffic control that the takeoff would include a simulated engine failure and thus asymmetric flight. Eyewitnesses later stated on record that the takeoff had appeared normal until, moments later, the aircraft rolled to the left and deviated from its departure route in the same direction. The eyewitnesses observed the aircraft rolling further and further to the left and the nose of the aircraft pointing downwards. The aircraft struck the ground at 10:09 local time at a pitch angle of 65 degrees and a slight right bank angle and burned out. Both pilots were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) took over the investigation into the cause of the crash after the accident. The investigators found that the pilot in command, when simulating a failure of the left engine, had selected flight idle instead of zero thrust mode. Because of this operating error, not only a mere engine failure but also a simultaneous failure of the variable-pitch propeller was simulated. The pilot in command operated the aircraft at a speed and bank angle that, without corrective intervention, would inevitably lead to a loss of control. In addition, the flight manoeuvre was carried out at an altitude which in any case made recovery of the aircraft from abnormal attitudes hardly possible and thus offered a low margin for error. The pilot in command had furthermore increased his workload by increasing the thrust of the left engine and activating the yaw damper. Overall, he had been so absorbed in carrying out the simulated engine failure exercise that he did not notice that the limits for airspeed and heading were being exceeded.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Airnorth 2010” (revision 263031413, 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
On 22 March 2010, at 1009 Central Standard Time, an Embraer - Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica EMB-120ER Brasilia with two crew, prepared to take off on a training flight from runway 29 at Darwin Aerodrome, Northern Territory. The crew were the only occupants. The training captain advised the aerodrome controller that the departure would incorporate asymmetric flight (simulated engine failure) and was approved by the controller to perform the manoeuvre.
After becoming airborne, witnesses reported seeing the aircraft roll and diverge left from its take-off path. They watched as the aircraft continued rolling left, and entered a steep nose-down attitude. It disappeared into trees, south of the runway threshold from where a column of black smoke was seen shortly afterwards.
Aerodrome rescue and fire fighting services were in attendance very shortly thereafter and extinguished the fire. Both pilots were fatally injured and the aircraft was seriously damaged due to impact forces and an intense post-impact fire.
The aircraft was equipped with two Pratt and Whitney Canada model PW118A gas turbine engines, each rated at 1,800 shaft horsepower and driving, through a reduction gearbox, a four-bladed Hamilton Standard constant speed, full-feathering, reversing propeller. The propeller blades were of composite construction.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Australia. Further information pertaining to this incident may be obtained on their web site at www.atsb.gov.au.
This report is for informational purposes only and contains only information obtained for, or released by, the ATSB.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall der Airnorth 2010
- Article
- Flugunfall der Airnorth 2010
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 263031413 · 2026-01-04 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q109569307
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ENG10RA022
- Event ID
- 20100414X14446
- Case number
- ENG10RA022
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall der Airnorth 2010" (page 11915711, revision 263031413), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ENG10RA022 (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 ENG10RA022
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): An Airnorth aircraft on a crew check and training flight: an airline's own training flight. The article: "an Airnorth Embraer EMB 120ER Brasilia, which was being used for a training flight"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2010 Airnorth accident" and NTSB case ENG10RA022, 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.