Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

• On June 12, 1980, a Metro II operating as Air Wisconsin Flight 965 suffered engine failure following massive water ingestion during a thunderstorm; the crew lost control and crashed near Valley, Nebraska. Both crew members and 11 passengers died; two passengers survived with serious injuries.
• On January 15, 1987, a Metro II operating as Skywest Airlines Flight 1834 collided with a single engine Mooney M-20 near Kearns Utah. All eight people on the Metro II were killed in the accident.
• On January 19, 1988, a Fairchild Metro III operating as Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 under the Continental Express brand, crashed near Bayfield, Colorado. Both crew members and seven of the 15 passengers died. Of the surviving passengers, only one was uninjured.
• On February 8, 1988, a Metro III operating as Nürnberger Flugdienst Flight 108 suffered a lightning strike, following which the electrical system failed. The right wing separated from the aircraft during an uncontrolled descent and the aircraft disintegrated and crashed near Kettwig, Germany. Both crew members and all 19 passengers died.
• On February 19, 1988, a Fairchild Metro operating as AVAir Flight 3378 crashed one mile from the runway after takeoff from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, North Carolina. Pilot error was found to be the cause.
• On September 26, 1989, Skylink Airlines Flight 070, a Fairchild Metro III was on a scheduled flight from Vancouver(YVR) to Terrace (YXT), British Columbia with two pilots and five passengers on board. The aircraft crashed one quarter mile to the west of Terrace Airport while the crew was attempting to carry out a missed approach in IFR conditions. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and a post-crash fire. All seven occupants were fatally injured in the crash.
• On February 1, 1991, SkyWest Airlines Flight 5569, operated with a Metro III, was waiting on a runway when USAir Flight 1493 collided with it, resulting in the death of the 10 passengers and two crew members on board the Metro.
• On September 16, 1995, a Tamair Metro III, VH-NEJ, crashed shortly after take off from Tamworth, NSW, Australia, killing all three on board. The crash occurred following a "V1 cut" at night and raised many questions regarding the safety of asymmetric training operations at night.
• On June 18, 1998, Propair Flight 420, a Metro II flying from Dorval International Airport (now Montreal-Trudeau International Airport) to Peterborough Airport in Peterborough, Ontario, experienced a wing/engine fire during the initial climb. It attempted an emergency landing at Mirabel, but crashed near the runway threshold, in part due to a landing gear failure. The two pilots and the nine passengers on board were killed.
• On May 3, 2005, a Metro III operating a cargo flight as Airwork Flight 23 broke up in midair and crashed near Stratford, New Zealand. Both crew members died.
• On May 7, 2005, a Transair Metro 23 crashed near Lockhart River, north of Cooktown, Queensland in Australia. A total of 15 people died in what is, as of December 2009, the worst airline crash in Australia since the 1960s.
• On February 10, 2011, Manx2 Flight 7100, on a flight from Belfast, Northern Ireland to Cork, Ireland, crashed on landing in fog, resulting in the death of six people.
• On September 6, 2011, Aerocon Flight 238 from El Trompillo Airport, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia to Teniente Jorge Henrich Arauz Airport, Trinidad, Bolivia crashed on approach to Trinidad. The flight was operated by Swearingen SA-227 Metroliner CP-2548. Eight of the nine people on board were killed.
• On June 6, 2012, a SA227-C metro en route from Montevideo Carrasco, MVD to Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) crashed into the Rio de la Plata close to the coast of Montevideo south of Flores Island. It was registered as CX-LAS operating a freight flight on behalf of DHL.