5 accidents of Swearingen aircraft since 2000

The Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II turboprop aircraft, operated by Aeronaves TSM took off from Querétaro Airport, Mexico, for a test flight. The plane was supposed to return to Querétaro Airport after the flight. 2 crewmembers and 3 passengers were onboard. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff. All 5 people onboard were killed. The plane was operating a post-maintenance test flight. It fell almost vertically and burst into flames after impacting the side of a highway, 11 km southwest of the airport. A video caught by a security camera shows the plane plummeting from the sky, followed by another aircraft part. This is consistent with an in-flight break-up of the aircraft structure.

The Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II cargo plane, operated by Carson Air, was carrying freight from Vancouver International Airport, Canada, to Prince George Airport, British Columbia, Canada with a crew of two pilots on board. Shortly after departure, approximately 15 nautical miles north of the airport, when the aircraft was at about 2400 metres above sea level, lost altitude rapidly and crashed. Both occupants were killed. Rescue ground search crews found aircraft wreckage in steep and heavily wooded terrain southeast of Crown Mountain. More wreckage, including the cockpit, was found the next day. There was a small fire in the area of the right engine nacelle. The emergency locator transmitter activated, but did not transmit (no signal was received). The crew did not declare an emergency. The aircraft dropped from an altitude of 2,400 metres to about 900 metres — the height at which the wreckage was found — in less than 20 seconds. This with the wreckage dispersal and the lack of terrain damage is consistent with an in-flight break-up, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

The Fairchild Swearingen SA-227AC Metro III operated by Aerocon took off from Trinidad, Bolivia, for a passenger flight to Riberalta, Bolivia. 16 passengers and 2 crewmembers were onboard. The plane went off the runway after landing at Riberalta airport. Eight of the eighteen occupants onboard perished in the accident. The plane was approaching Riberalta's runway 14 in heavy rain, wind and poor visibility. The plane touched down on the asphalt, but then went off the runway, ran through brush, overturned and caught fire. A witness reported the plane touch down near the end of the runway. The aircraft came to rest about 300 meters outside the aerodrome. 8 passengers perished in the accident, one of the pilots and a passenger received serious injuries, the other pilot and 7 passengers escaped with minor injuries. Riberalta offers an asphalt runway 14/32 of 1830 meters/6000 feet length.

The Swearingen SA-227BC Metro III passenger plane, operated by Manx2, took off from Belfast, United Kingdom, for a passenger flight to Cork, Ireland. 10 passengers and two crewmembers were onboard. The plane crashed during landing at Cork. 6 occupants were killed, and 4 survived. On its first approach to Cork airport runway 17 the pilot aborted landing due to heavy fog. Then, he made a second attempt on Runway 35 in the opposite direction. Blinded by heavy fog he took the plane back into a holding pattern above the airport for 20 minutes. Then, the crew came back for a third approach, this time on runway 17. But the plane smashed nose first into the runway, overturned, careered at speed over the tarmac and ploughed through 70 ft of adjacent grass and mud. The right wing appears to have been crushed upwards in the impact, causing the engine on that side to burst into flames. With the plane imbalanced, its forward momentum forced it to flip over in a left-to-right motion, onto its roof. The front of the plane burst into flames but in less than two minutes two fire engines were at the side and had quickly extinguished the blaze. Both crewmembers and four passengers were killed. The four other passengers survived.

The Fairchild Metroliner 227, on a passenger flight from Bamaga to Iron Range, crashed shortly before landing into a fog shrouded hillside surrounding the airport. The bad weather conditions could be the root cause of the accident. All 15 passengers and crew members were killed.