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McDonnel Douglas DC-9-31 accident report

Selection of the most serious accidents :

Tuesday 9 September 1969 Allegheny DC-9-31 N988VJ c/n 47211/357

DSP Flight AL853 from Cincinnati (CVG) to Indianapolis (IND) with 4 crew and 78 passengers. MAC with a Piper PA-28-140 Cherokee reg. N7374J. YOM : 1968 Airframe hrs : 3170 engines : JT8D-7. All 82 people on board died in the crash.

location : 6.5 km NW of Fairland, Indiana, USA +- 100m 39°37’20”N 85°55’36”W

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Tuesday 31 July 1973 Delta Airlines DC-9-31 N975NE c/n 47075/166

DSP Flight DL723 from Manchester (MHT) to Boston (BOS) with 6 crew and 83 passengers. Wrong approach, descended to low and impacted a seawall 1000m short of runway 04R. YOM : 1967

Airframe hrs : 14639 engines : JT8D-7. 88 people died in the crash and 1 severely injured. At first two people survived, but one died the next day from his injuries and the 2nd on 11 December 1973.

location : Boston – Logan apt +- 25m 42°20’58.33”N 71°00’43.55”W

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Monday 4 April 1977 Southern Airways DC-9-31 N1335U c/n 47393/608

Southern Airways flight 242 departed from Huntsville (Alabama) at 3:54 p.m. and headed for Atlanta (Georgia). It is raining heavily and there is a capricious wind. There are 81 passengers and 4 crew members on board. The planned flight time is only 25 minutes and an altitude of only 5185m is maintained due to the bad weather. The crew contacts the flight control center in Memphis and is told that a SIGMET is in effect in this area, a warning for extremely bad weather. At this time, the aircraft is flying into heavy turbulence and it is hailing very hard, mixed with heavy rain. The windscreen is shattered by the hail and the radio connection was short-cut due to lightning strikes. Suddenly one engine stops and 30 seconds later the other also fails! Both engines stalled due to ingestion of massive amounts of water and hail. The aircraft has been turned into a cumbersome glider. At that moment it is at an altitude of 14000 ft (4267m). The nearest airport at that time is Dobbins at 32km distance. The crew tried everything to get at least one engine running again, but in vain. Dobbins is not within reach... The crew decides to make an emergency landing on a highway, which seems deserted. The DC-9 descends 1 meter for every 10 meters flown, at a speed of 320 km/h. However, highway 92 is not wide enough, on both sides the plane starts to mow trees and telephone poles. It is 4:18 p.m., when the wheels touch the road surface, the left wingtip hits an embankment, after which the aircraft turns left, runs off the road and races into the village of New Hope (Georgia). A car with 7 young people was crushed on the highway. Two crew members and 60 passengers died immediately, later two more passengers died. Eight people were killed on the ground, bringing the total to 72. There are 23 seriously injured. MDD gives a glide number of 12.88, from 4270m altitude the aircraft should then be able to fly for 55 km.

Major contributing factors include the failure of the company's dispatching system to provide the flight crew with up-to-date severe weather information pertaining to the aircraft's intended route of flight, the captain's reliance on airborne weather radar for penetration of thunderstorm areas, and limitations in the FAA's ATC system which precluded the timely dissemination of real-time hazardous weather information to the flight crew.

YOM : 1971 Airframe hrs : 15405 engines : JT8D-7A

location : +- 100m 33°57’47”N 84°47’14”W

Saturday 2 July 1994 USAir DC-9-31 N954VJ c/n 47590/703

DSP Flight US1016 from Columbia (CAE) to Charlotte (CLT) with 5 crew and 52 passengers. Approached Charlotte RW 18R with thunderstorms around. It got into a windshear, stalled and crashed to the ground. YOM : 1973 Airframe hrs : 53917 cycles : 63147 engines : JT8D-7B. 37 people died in the crash and 16 serious injured.

location : Charlotte +- 100m 35°13’06”N 80°58’24”W

In above table all known fatal accidents are listed, but not all incidents with no fatalities, only those with total flying hours known are listed , with the purpose to deduct the amount of years flown yearly and the average flight time.

abbreviations :

DSP = domestic scheduled passenger

ISP = international scheduled passenger

MAC = Mid Air Collision

PUF = Power Unit Failure

RW = runway

YOM = Year of Manufacture

Literature :

Construction List - DC-9 - PlaneLogger

Accident Archives | Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

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