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Atlas / NTSB / CHI88FA039

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI88FA039

1988-01-05 BEDFORD PARK, Illinois, United States Airport · MDW Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Factual narrative

DRG AN ARRIVAL TO CHICAGO MIDWAY ARPT ON A COLD NIGHT, THE PLT RPRTD HE WAS HAVING TROUBLE WITH A STICKY THROTTLE. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE MADE AN EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION & SAID HE WAS 'GOING IN.' WITNESSES SAW THE ACFT IN A DESCENT BEFORE IT CRASHED. ONE WITNESS SAID THE ACFT WAS AT ABOUT 200' AGL WHEN IT PASSED OVER HIS POSITION & THAT HE COULD NOT HEAR ANY ENG NOISE. ANOTHER WITNESS SAID THE ACFT CAME IN AS IF TO LAND. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT CRASHED INTO A WAREHOUSE WHILE IN A WINGS LEVEL ATTITUDE. A TEARDOWN OF THE ENG WAS MADE, BUT NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND. A PLT, WHO FLEW THE ACFT ON THE MORNING OF THE ACDNT RPRTD THAT THE THROTTLE SEEMED TO BE STUCK WHEN HE 1ST STARTED THE ENG, BUT ONCE THE ENG WAS WARM, THE THROTTLE FUNCTIONED NORMALLY. HE THEN MADE AN UNEVENTFUL FLT. TEMP AT THE TIME OF THE ACDNT WAS RPRTD TO BE MINUS 8 DEG FAHRENHEIT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1988_CHI88FA039.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.