Wichita Falls - Dallas

On March 25, 1988 at 08:30 AM, Wichita Falls - Dallas experienced a crash involving BAe Jetstream 31, operated by American Eagle, with the event recorded near Dallas-Fort Worth Texas.

The flight was categorized as positioning and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The copilot was flying the aircraft as it was being ferried after minor maintenance. As they were in a descent and were approaching the destination airport, the captain noted a left engine torque fluctuation of 20% to 30% and elected to secure the engine, although no yawing was noticed. During shutdown, the left propeller did not feather and drag increased until the aircraft would not sustain level flight. An attempted restart of the left engine was unsuccessful, so the captain tried to feather it again. However, the left propeller still did not feather. Subsequently, the pilots were forced to land in an open field on uneven terrain and the aircraft was damaged. An extensive investigation was made, but no cause could be found for the torque fluctuation, nor could the condition be duplicated, however, the investigation did note that the air and ground procedures for engine shutdown were similar. A variation in the ground shutdown procedures allowed for engagement of the start latches.

Aircraft reference details include registration N411AE, MSN 671, year of manufacture 1985.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 32.7488°, -97.2990°.