Air Wisconsin Flight 965

Air Wisconsin Flight 965
	A Swearingen SA-226TC Metro II, similar to the accident aircraft
Accident
Date	June 12, 1980
Summary	Loss of control after double engine flame-out
Site	ca 5 km (3.1 mi; 2.7 nmi) North of Valley Nebraska, United States ; 41°22′55″N 96°20′42″W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II
Operator	Air Wisconsin
Call sign	WISCONSIN 965
Registration	N650S
Flight origin	Outagamie County Regional Airport (ATW/KATW) near Appleton, Wisconsin
Stopover	Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP/KMSP)
Destination	Lincoln Municipal Airport (LNK/KLNK)
Occupants	15
Passengers	13
Crew	2
Fatalities	13
Injuries	2
Survivors	2

Air Wisconsin Flight 965 (registration N650S) was a flight operated by Air Wisconsin that crashed near Valley, Nebraska, on June 12, 1980. The crash was caused by poor weather conditions making the engines fail and failure to recontrol the aircraft.[1]

Accident

The aircraft operating Flight 965, a Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II, left Outagamie County Regional Airport on a one-stop flight to Lincoln Municipal Airport at 12:45 on June 12, 1980. The flight stopped at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and then continued on to Lincoln Municipal Airport.[1]

While en route but nearing its destination the aircraft experienced severe turbulence and was cleared to successively lower altitudes in an attempt to avoid the turbulence. During the descent the aircraft entered a region of severe precipitation, which caused both engines to flame-out due to very high levels of water ingestion. The crew managed to re-light both engines but lost control and impacted the ground. The aircraft struck the ground in a slightly nose down and right wing low attitude, bounced and then struck the ground a second time, sliding along the ground coming to a rest inverted. Both crew and eleven of the thirteen passengers were killed in the accident.[1]

Aircraft

The accident aircraft, SA-226TC Metro II c/n TC-228, had flown a total of 8055 hours and had first flown in 1976. There were no failures of the aircraft or its systems reported before the crash, or discovered by the investigation team.[1]

Investigation

The investigation focused on why the aircraft was flown deliberately into a region of very extreme weather, without air traffic control informing the crew of the weather or the on-board weather detection system indicating the extreme weather.[1]

NTSB photo of Air Wisconsin flight 965 wreckage

Causes

The direct cause of the crash was determined as flight into extreme weather causing the engines to flame-out and failure to maintain control during the recovery. Contributory causes were the failure of air traffic services to warn of the extreme weather and the inability of the aircraft's weather radar to penetrate even moderate precipitation, leaving the crew unaware of the extreme precipitation in the weather ahead.[2]

Notes

Ranter, Harro. "Accident description". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
"Air Wisconsin Inc., Swearing SA-226 Metro, N650S, Valley, Nebraska, June 12, 1980" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. December 9, 1980. Retrieved July 8, 2020. - Copy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

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[asn-1] Ranter, Harro. "Accident description". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved November 7, 2014.

[2] "Air Wisconsin Inc., Swearing SA-226 Metro, N650S, Valley, Nebraska, June 12, 1980" (PDF). National Transportation Safety Board. December 9, 1980. Retrieved July 8, 2020. - Copy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States and U.S. territories in the 1980s
1980	Air Wisconsin Flight 965
1981	Eastern Air Lines Flight 935
1982	Air Florida Flight 90 Thunderbirds Indian Springs Diamond Crash World Airways Flight 30 Pilgrim Airlines Flight 458 Pan Am Flight 759 Twilight Zone accident Pan Am Flight 830
1983	United Airlines Flight 2885 Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 Air Canada Flight 797 Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight 8 Air Illinois Flight 710 Ozark Air Lines Flight 650 Anchorage runway collision
1984	Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 901 Vieques Air Link Flight 901A San Luis Obispo mid-air collision Provincetown-Boston Airlines Flight 1039
1985	Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 China Airlines Flight 006 Eastern Air Lines Flight 494 Delta Air Lines Flight 191 Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105 Henson Airlines Flight 1517 Teterboro collision Death of Ricky Nelson
1986	Grand Canyon mid-air collision Aeroméxico Flight 498 Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 incident
1987	SkyWest Airlines Flight 1834 Northwest Airlink Flight 2268 American Eagle Flight 5452 Northwest Airlines Flight 255 Indianapolis Ramada Inn A-7D Corsair II crash Continental Airlines Flight 1713 Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771
1988	Trans-Colorado Airlines Flight 2286 American Airlines Flight 132 AVAir Flight 3378 Aloha Airlines Flight 243 TACA Flight 110 Delta Air Lines Flight 1141
1989	United Airlines Flight 811 Evergreen International Airlines Flight 17 United Airlines Flight 232 USAir Flight 5050 KLM Flight 867 United Express Flight 2415
This list is incomplete.