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| Date: | Friday 28 February 2025 |
| Time: | 11:33 UTC |
| Type: |  Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II |
| Owner/operator: | SkyCare Air Ambulance |
| Registration: | C-GKPX |
| MSN: | TC-264 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1978 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | Thunder Bay Airport, ON (YQT) -
 Canada
|
| Phase: | Take off |
| Nature: | Ambulance |
| Departure airport: | Thunder Bay Airport, ON (YQT/CYQT) |
| Sioux Lookout Airport, ON (YXL/CYXL) | |
| Investigating agency: | TSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities |
SkyCare Air Ambulance flight PHX264, a Metro II, suffered an accident on takeoff from Thunder Bay Airport, ON (YQT).
The aircraft taxied for takeoff from Runway 07, lining up with centre of the runway at the intersection of Runway 12/21. The power levers were advanced, the flight crew saw 2 positive torques, the BETA lights extinguished, and takeoff power was set. The aircraft accelerated to 80 knots normally. The pilot flying applied up elevator to reduce the weight on the nose wheel. Shortly after raising the nose wheel, the flight crew felt the aircraft pull hard left and a call was made to reject the takeoff. During the recovery with slippery runway conditions and reduced traction, the aircraft started to swerve. The aircraft turned to the right, then back to the left, and back to the right. Control of the aircraft was regained with the use of braking, nose wheel steering and reverse power. The flight crew at some point in the recovery process felt a thud on the left main gear. The aircraft came to a stop on the runway centreline. The flight crew asked Thunder Bay Radio to close their flight plan and advised that they were returning to the apron. On the apron, the flight crew shutdown the engines and exited the aircraft. Upon exiting the aircraft, the flight crew noticed a significant amount of fuel leaking from the left inner wing and gear area. The crew requested assistance from the operator’s maintenance and the airport refueller to control the fuel leak.
The operator’s maintenance inspected the aircraft and found structural damage to the left nacelle area skins and the left main gear attachment points.
An airfield inspection found no runway lights were damaged. A runway condition report issued 1 hour before the event reported that Runway 07’s centre 100-foot width had 30% coverage of 1/8 inch dry snow and the remaining runway width reported as 6 inches in dry snow.
A runway condition report issued approximately 45 minutes after the event reported that Runway 07’s centre 120-foot width was 20% coverage of 1/8 inch dry snow and 30% coverage of frost with the remaining runway width reported as 11 inches in dry snow.
Sources:
TSB A25C0029
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 11 December 2022 | C-GKPX | SkyCare Air Ambulance | 0 | Thunder Bay, ON (CYQT) | |
non |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 16-Apr-2025 19:02 | ASN | Added |
| 16-Apr-2025 19:08 | ASN | Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Nature, Narrative, ] |
| 12-Jul-2025 11:18 | Anon. | Updated [Damage, ] |
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