2008 Airtex Aviation accident
Fairchild Swearingen SA227-AC Metro III · The 2008 Airtex Aviation accident occurred on 9 April 2008
From Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) to Brisbane International Airport (BNE)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 1 · 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
- 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
- Airline
Fairchild Swearingen SA227-AC Metro III
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild Swearingen SA227
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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-OZA
- Operator
- Airtex Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)To Brisbane International Airport (BNE)
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
The 2008 Airtex Aviation accident occurred on 9 April 2008. On that day the pilot of an Airtex Aviation Fairchild Swearingen SA227-AC Metro III cargo aircraft, which was operating a mail cargo flight from Sydney to Brisbane, lost control of the aircraft a few minutes after take-off. In the incident the pilot, who was the only crew member on board, was killed and the aircraft was destroyed.
Accident sequence
After a take-off run from runway 16R of Sydney-Kingsford Smith Airport, the aircraft lifted off at 23:23. Immediately after lift-off the pilot was instructed to change to the departure controller's frequency. The controller informed the pilot that he had the aircraft on his radar and instructed him to fly a left turn onto a heading of 090 degrees. The pilot acknowledged receipt of the radio message, but the radar data showed that immediately afterwards, contrary to the instruction, the aircraft was flown in a right turn towards the southwest. At 23:25:54 the air traffic controller again pointed out to the pilot that he was actually supposed to fly a left turn. The pilot acknowledged this at 23:25:59 and added that he had a small technical problem. The radar data of the following 70 seconds showed that the aircraft first completed a left turn, which was followed by a right turn. The aircraft then disappeared from radar and crashed into the sea.
Investigation and cause
Cause
After the accident the Australian Transport Safety Bureau took over the investigation into the cause of the accident. After a search lasting several weeks, a larger debris field was located on 12 May 2008. The wreckage was scattered over an area 1,200 metres long and 400 metres wide.
The investigators considered it very likely that, because of a defect in the main bus bar, the aircraft's AC electrical system had been without power during the flight. This would have meant that neither the attitude indicator nor the autopilot was working.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Airtex Aviation 2008” (revision 262091174, 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
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall der Airtex Aviation 2008
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 262091174 · 2025-12-03 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q115102674
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall der Airtex Aviation 2008" (page 12388379, revision 262091174), translated into English with AI assistance
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): An Airtex Aviation Metro III flying mail from Sydney to Brisbane: carriage of mail for hire, airline. The article: "which was operating a mail cargo flight from Sydney to Brisbane"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.