Mitsubishi MU-2 - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• On March 24, 1983, an MU-2B-60, registration N72B, was en route from Jacksonville, FL, to Atlanta, GA, level at 18,000 feet. The aircraft was hauling cancelled checks and had just been handed off from JAX Center to ATL center when it disappeared from radar at approximately 2:30am. The wreckage was spread over a two-mile area. According to the NTSB report, the right wing failed upward and the left wing failed downward.

• A spate of accidents involving MU-2s occurred in Australia between 1988 and 1994, all caused by icing on the airframe which caused the airspeed to decrease to the point where each aircraft stalled and entered a spin.

• On 16 December 1988, an MU-2B-60 crashed near Leonora, Western Australia. The pilot and nine passengers were killed.

• On 26 January 1990, an MU-2B-60 crashed near Meekatharra, Western Australia. The pilot and one passenger were killed. The Leonora investigation was extended to include this crash given the same aircraft type crashed in similar circumstances.

• On 7 November 1990, a cargo MU-2B-30 crashed near Bathurst, New South Wales. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

• On 21 December 1994, two MU-2s crashed in separate but similar circumstances on approach to Melbourne Airport. One of the pilots was killed.

• On 19 April 1993, an MU-2 reported engine trouble while flying near Dubuque, Iowa and crashed into a farm silo about nine miles south of that city. All eight people aboard the aircraft were killed, including South Dakota Governor George S. Mickelson. The state-owned airplane was returning to South Dakota from a lobbying effort in Ohio. Coincidentally, the crash took place on the same day as the end of the Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Texas, which overshadowed the crash in national news coverage.

• On 18 January 2010, an MU-2-2B-60 crashed on approach to Lorain County Regional Airport, killing the two pilots and both passengers. The passengers were 89 year-old passenger Don Brown, inventor of a grid system for mounting drop ceilings, and his wife.