Phoenix Air Flight Dart 21
Learjet 35A · The 1994 Fresno air accident occurred on 14 December 1994
From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT) to Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA95MA007
- 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
- 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
- 21
- 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
- Government
- 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
Learjet 35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- 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
- N521PA
- Operator
- Phoenix Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT)To Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT)
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Company/operator management › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Company/operator mgmt › Inadequate surveillance of operation
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Improper
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Shorted
- Fuselage › Fire
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
The 1994 Fresno air accident occurred on 14 December 1994. On that day, a Phoenix Air Learjet 35A crashed onto a busy street in the urban area of Fresno, California, after a fire had broken out in flight and the pilots had lost control of the aircraft. The two occupants of the Learjet died in the accident, and 21 people on the ground were injured.
Accident sequence
The accident aircraft had undergone a conversion to a military aircraft; the flight being operated, with departure and destination at Fresno Air Terminal, was military in nature and was carried out in cooperation with the Air National Guard. The aircraft was one of two identical Learjets with which such exercises were flown. When the aircraft was about to carry out an approach to Fresno Air Terminal, the pilots suddenly reported a fire in the right engine. They flew a right turn for an emergency landing at the airport, but owing to difficulties controlling the aircraft they only overflew the runway and the aircraft flew towards the urban area of Fresno. The pilots narrowly managed to overfly an elementary school. They attempted to make an emergency landing on Olive Avenue, during which the aircraft snapped a light pole and then struck an apartment complex located along the street and burst into flames. In total 21 people on the ground were injured, some very seriously – one resident of the apartment complex suffered, among other injuries, burns to 60 percent of her body. Twelve apartments in two residential buildings were severely damaged by the impact and the fire. The aircraft was completely destroyed by the impact and fire, and both pilots were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The National Transportation Safety Board took over the investigation into the cause of the accident. The investigators found improperly installed electrical wiring for special missions on the aircraft, which had led to a fire during the flight, which caused damage to the aircraft's systems and structures and consequently difficulties in controlling the aircraft. The investigators further criticised improper maintenance and inspection procedures by the operator as well as inadequate supervision and approval of the maintenance and inspection work by the operator during the installation of the special mission systems.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Phoenix-Air-Flug Dart 21” (revision 258176714, 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
AT ABOUT 1146 PST, LEARJET 35A, N521PA, OPERATING AS A PUBLIC USE AIRCRAFT, CRASHED IN FRESNO, CA. OPERATING WITH CALL SIGN DART 21, THE FLIGHTCREW HAD DECLARED AN EMERGENCY INBOUND TO FRESNO AIR TERMINAL DUE TO ENGINE FIRE INDICATIONS. THEY FLEW THE AIRPLANE TOWARD A RIGHT BASE FOR THEIR REQUESTED RUNWAY, BUT THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED PAST THE AIRPORT. THE FLIGHTCREW WAS HEARD ON TOWER FREQUENCY ATTEMPTING TO DIAGNOSE THE EMERGENCY CONDITIONS AND CONTROL THE AIRPLANE UNTIL IT CRASHED, WITH LANDING GEAR DOWN, ON AN AVENUE IN FRESNO. BOTH PILOTS WERE FATALLY INJURED. TWENTY-ONE PERSONS ON THE GROUND WERE INJURED, AND 12 APARTMENT UNITS IN 2 BUILDINGS WERE DESTROYED OR SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED BY IMPACT OR FIRE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT SPECIAL MISSION WIRING WAS NOT INSTALLED PROPERLY, LEADING TO A LACK OF OVERLOAD CURRENT PROTECTION. THE IN-FLIGHT FIRE MOST LIKELY ORIGINATED WITH A SHORT OF THE SPECIAL MISSION POWER SUPPLY WIRES IN AN AREA UNPROTECTED BY CURRENT LIMITERS. THE FIRE RESULTED IN FALSE ENGINE FIRE WARNING INDICATIONS TO THE PILOTS THAT LED THEM TO A SHUTDOWN OF THE LEFT ENGINE. AN INTENSE FIRE BURNED THROUGH THE AFT ENGINE SUPPORT BEAM, DAMAGING THE AIRPLANE STRUCTURE AND SYSTEMS IN THE AFT FUSELAGE AND MAY HAVE PRECLUDED A SUCCESSFUL EMERGENCY LANDING. (FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, SEE NTSB/AAR-95/04)
Probable cause
1) IMPROPERLY INSTALLED ELECTRICAL WIRING FOR SPECIAL MISSION OPERATIONS THAT LED TO AN IN-FLIGHT FIRE THAT CAUSED AIRPLANE SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGE AND SUBSEQUENT AIRPLANE CONTROL DIFFICULTIES; 2) IMPROPER MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION PROCEDURES FOLLOWED BY THE OPERATOR; AND 3) INADEQUATE OVERSIGHT AND APPROVAL OF THE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION PRACTICE BY THE OPERATOR IN THE INSTALLATION OF THE SPECIAL MISSION SYSTEMS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Phoenix-Air-Flug Dart 21
- Article
- Phoenix-Air-Flug Dart 21
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 258176714 · 2025-07-21 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q133188627
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA95MA007
- Event ID
- 20001206X02709
- Case number
- DCA95MA007
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Phoenix-Air-Flug Dart 21" (page 13311204, revision 258176714), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case DCA95MA007 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record DCA95MA007: NTSB API eventDate, eventTimeUtc and eventTimeUtcOffsetHours (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record DCA95MA007
- Map position
- NTSB record DCA95MA007: events decimal coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record DCA95MA007: 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 DCA95MA007: operated under Public Aircraft
- Fatalities
- NTSB record DCA95MA007: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record DCA95MA007: NTSB API ongroundFatal
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Phoenix Air Flight Dart 21" and NTSB case DCA95MA007, 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.