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SEA93GA041

1992-12-18 · BILLINGS, Montana, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport BIL

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW ESTABLISHED VORTEX AVOIDANCE PROCEDURES, AS PUBLISHED IN THE AIRMAN'S INFORMATION MANUAL, TO PROVIDE HIS OWN WAKE TURBULENCE SEPARATION.

Factual narrative

DURING DESCENT INTO BILLINGS, THE CITATION WAS SEQUENCED BEHIND A BOEING 757, AND BOTH AIRPLANES WERE EVENTUALLY CLEARED FOR VISUAL APPROACHES. ABOUT 1-1/2 MI FROM THE RUNWAY THE CITATION WAS OBSERVED TO ROLL RAPIDLY TO THE INVERTED POSITION & DESCEND ALMOST VERTICALLY INTO THE GROUND. ACCORDING TO ATC TRANSCRIPTS AND THE AIRPLANES'S COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER, THE CREW OF THE CITATION HAD MAINTAINED VISUAL AWARENESS OF THE POSITION OF THE B-757 THROUGHOUT THE APPROACH. AT THE TIME OF THE UPSET, THE VERTICAL SEPARATION BETWEEN AIRPLANES WAS 600-1000 FT, AND THE HORIZONTAL SEPARATION WAS DECREASING BELOW 2.6 MI. ONE OF THE CITATION CAPTAIN'S LAST COMMENTS WAS 'ALMOST RAN OVER A SEVEN FIFTY SEVEN.' WINDS WERE 5 KTS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1992_SEA93GA041.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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