Boeing 737 N820TJ

Summary

On 19 May 2020 at about 22:16 local time, a Boeing 737 registered N820TJ, operated by Swift Air LLC, was involved in an accident near Victorville, California, United States. 95 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

19 May 2020 at 22:16

Classification

Accident

Location

Victorville, California, United States

Coordinates

34.5709, -117.3291

Aircraft

Boeing 737

Registration

N820TJ

Category

Airplane

Operator

Swift Air LLC

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Victorville → San Diego

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

DCA20LA107

Nobody was injured.

Improper installation of dorsal fin attach bolts which caused the dorsal fin to separate during flight, substantially damaging the left horizontal stabilizer.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

After departure, the air carrier airplane was climbing through an altitude of about 8,000 ft, at which time the flight crew heard a loud bang. Because the flight instruments and gauges showed nothing abnormal, the flight crew elected to continue the flight to the destination airport. The airplane landed uneventfully. Postflight inspection of the airplane found that the dorsal fin and three panels on the lower left side of the vertical stabilizer were missing, and that the left horizontal stabilizer was substantially damaged. Most of the dorsal fin, the vertical stabilizer panels, and 7 of the 14 bolts attaching the dorsal fin to the fuselage were not recovered. Of the seven bolts that were recovered, four remined installed, and three were found loose. Three of the four installed bolts remained attached to pieces of the dorsal fin structure. Examination of the photographs showed that the bolts installed in three positions on the left side of the dorsal fin were the correct part number. The bolt installed in a position on the right side of the dorsal fin was not the correct part number, and the bolt was longer than required. The photographs also showed remnants of old sealant at each of the bolt locations but no evidence that sealant was applied during maintenance of the dorsal fin in February 2019 (less than 3 months before the accident). The seven missing bolts for the dorsal fin structure became loose, had fractured, or were not properly installed.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.