Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Farmersville, Texas
Tuesady, January 24, 2012 19:27 CST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
A regional jet departed from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on a scheduled passenger flight to Madison, Wisconsin. About 15 minutes after takeoff, the crew declared an emergency because the airplane had been struck by lightning and requested to divert to Little Rock, Arkansas. After landing, the airplane was inspected and found to have sustained damage from the lightning strike requiring repairs to the left wing skin and rivets and replacement of the left wingtip and aileron.
At the time of the incident, the airplane was being handled by controllers at the Fort Worth Air Traffic Control Center. Significant convective weather was in the area and along the airplane's route, resulting in closures of several routes into and out of the Dallas area. The controllers did not provide specific information on the location of the convective activity along the airplane's route until the crew asked for the information. However, in response to a question, the controllers did advise the crew that there was moderate to heavy precipitation ahead. The crew attempted to identify areas where they could divert to avoid the convective activity, but the controller was unable to approve significant deviations because of other traffic flows in the vicinity. Shortly afterward, the lightning strike occurred. Because of the lightning strike and requests for weather deviations by other aircraft flying through the same area, the center's Traffic Management Unit began rerouting aircraft away from the area and toward other routes less affected by convective weather. When interviewed, traffic management staff noted that this pattern was normal: it was not unusual to wait until pilots refused to fly a route because of weather impact before discontinuing its use.
This incident was included as an example in a recommendation letter to the FAA, available at http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/recletters/2012/A-12-018-020.pdf, which recommends improved transmission of real-time lightning data to both controllers and pilots.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The flight's continued operation through an area containing substantial convective weather activity. Contributing to the accident was the air traffic control/traffic management unit's lack of awareness and recognition of the effect of weather movement on the departure route in use and the flight crew's acceptance of a route and limited weather deviation that was inadequate to maintain a safe distance from the thunderstorms in the area.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 1/24/2012 |
| Event Day of the Week | Tuesday |
| Time of Event | 1927 |
| Event Time Zone | Central Standard Time |
| Event City | Farmersville |
| Event State | TEXAS |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | -- |
| Event Date Year | 2012 |
| Event Date Month | 1 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | -- |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | -- |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | -- |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | -- |
| Time of the weather observation | |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | -- |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | -- |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | -- |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | -- |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | -- |
| Lighting Conditions | -- |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | -- |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | -- |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | -- |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | -- |
| Variable Wind Indicator | -- |
| Wind Speed (knots) | -- |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | -- |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 53 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 32189 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 18 2013 9:20AM |
| User who most recently changed record | gamw |
| Basic weather conditions | -- |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | -- |
| NTSB Number | OPS12IA303 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | -- |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | None |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | EMBRAER |
| Aircraft Model | EMB-145LR |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 145182 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | -- |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 55 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | -- |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | Unknown |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | -- |
| Aircraft Owner State | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | USA |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | SIMA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | SIMA586A |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | DFW |
| Departure City | Fort Worth |
| Departure State | TX |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 1916 |
| Departure Time Zone | CST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | MSN |
| Destination City | Madison |
| Destination State | WI |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 19 2012 5:24PM |
| User who most recently changed record | duns |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | -- |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |