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McDonnel Douglas DC-9-32 accident report
Selection of the most serious accidents :
Sunday 16 March 1969 VIASA DC-9-32 YV-C-AVD c/n 47243/448
ISP Flight VA742 from Maracaibo (ORO) to Miami (MIA) with 10 crew and 74 passengers. Due to faulty temperature sensors take-off performance was wrongly calculated resulting in a longer than predicted take-off run and slow climb out. The aircraft struck powerlines and then plunged into La Trinidad section of Maracaibo. YOM : 1969 engines : P&W JT8D-7.
All 84 people on board died in the crash and 71 people were killed on the ground. 100 people were injured, some of them serious. After this incident the old Grano de Oro airport was closed, moving to the new La Chinita apt . (MAR)
location : Maracaibo, Venezuela +- 300m 10°41’12”N 71°37’48”W
The old Grand de Oro apt. passenger terminal, location 10°40’19”N 71°38’11”W .
Grano de Oro airport location (runway) 10°40’24”N 71°38’26”W . Measuring the length of the runway at google maps, it was about 1850m long, with dwellings just located behind the runway..
Saturday 23 December 1978 Alitalia DC-9-32 I-DIKQ “Isola di Stromboli” c/n 47227/334
DSP Flight AZ4128 from Roma – Fiumicino apt. (FCO) to Palerma (PMO) with 5 crew and 124 passengers. Night time VOR/DME approach to Palermo RW21. Visibility was good, up to 10km. The aircraft descended to low and touched the water. Twenty-one survivors were saved by nearby fishing boats. YOM : 1968 engines : JT8D-9. 108 people died in the crash and injured.
location : 3 km N off Palermo – Punta Raisi airport +- 1km 38°12’28”N 13°06’30”E
Remains of I-DIKQ which were lifted from the seabed North of Palermo airport
Sunday 8 November 1981 AeroMexico DC-9-32 XA-DEO c/n 47622/753
DSP Flight AM110 from Acapulco (ACA) to Guadalajara (GDL) with 6 crew and 12 passengers. 35 minutes after take-off at 9500m altitude there was a sudden decompression. The crew initiated an emergency descent. Over the Sierra de Guerro mountains the plane struck a mountain at 6000 feet altitude and crashed.
Cause : probably metal fatigue in the rear pressure bulkhead.
YOM : 1974 All 18 people aboard died in the crash.
location : 65km E of Zihuatanejo, Mexico +- 5km 17°39’25”N 100°56’54”W
Saturday 11 May 1996 Valujet DC-9-32 N904VJ c/n 47377/496
DSP Flight VJA592 from Miami (MIA) to Atlanta (ATL) with 5 crew and 105 passengers. YOM : 1969 Airframe hrs : 68395 cycles : 80663 engines : JT8D-9A. All 110 people aboard died in the crash.
location : +- 500m 25°55’14”N 80°34’07”W
Valujet's DC-9, Flight 592 crashes with 101 passengers and 9 crew members west of Miami in the Everglades. The aircraft had 50 to 60 small chemical oxygen-generators on board without permission and precautions, transported as COMAT. There were labels "empty" attached to it. Valujet did not have permission from the FAA to transport dangerous goods.
Chemical Oxygen Generator : The oxidizer core is sodium chlorate (NaClO3), which is mixed with less than 5 percent barium peroxide (BaO2) and less than 1 percent potassium perchlorate (KClO4). The explosives in the percussion cap are a lead styphnate and tetracene mixture.
When heated to its decomposition temperature by the action of the percussion cap, a chemical reaction begins in the core whereby the NaClO3 is reduced to sodium chloride (NaCl) and the oxygen is liberated as a gas. The oxygen flows through the granular insulation between the chemical core and the outlet shell of the generator toward the outlet end of the generator. At the outlet end, the oxygen flows through a series of filters, through the outlet manifold, and into the plastic tubes connected to the reservoir bags on the mask assembly.
The chemical reaction is exothermic, which means that it liberates heat as a byproduct of the reaction. This causes the exterior surface of the oxygen generator to become very hot; the maximum temperature of the exterior surface of the oxygen generator during operation is limited by McDonnell Douglas specification to 547 °F when the generator is operated at an ambient temperature of 70 to 80 °F. Manufacturing test data indicate that when operated during tests, maximum shell temperatures typically reach 450 to 500 °F.
A fire started in the forward cargo bay, fuelled by the oxygen-generators. An emergency descent was initiated but soon control was lost due to the intense fire. The aircraft crashed nose-down in the Everglades. The salvage operation in the swamp was very difficult, after a week only 10% of the aircraft had been found.
All aboard were killed. All Valujet aircraft were grounded after the disaster at the instructions of the FAA. The maintenance of the aircraft was insufficient. The airline had outsourced much of this work. There was also criticism of the FAA, led by David R. Hinson , because the crashed DC-9 had been checked by this agency shortly before. Valujet offers cheap flights, it was only founded in 1993 and is based in Atlanta.
The position of the minister of transport Frederico Peña was also at stake. He considered the two-year-old Valujet to be a good example of the success of deregulation in aviation. Shortly before the accident, he argued that thanks to a company like Valujet that sold dirt-cheap tickets, prices for consumers had fallen. Even after the accident, he insisted that Valujet was "completely reliable and safe".
Valujet's aircraft are generally old, but it was the first airline to place an order on the yet-to-be-built MD-95.
ValuJet was grounded in June 1996 and not allowed to fly again until September of that same year, with a greatly reduced fleet. The airline's major customers never returned, and the company suffered major losses.
In 1997, ValuJet purchased the much smaller AirTran Airways . Although ValuJet was the nominal survivor, executives believed that a new name was important to regain passenger traffic, so the new company adopted the AirTran name in a reverse takeover . After the sale, AirTran made little mention of its past as ValuJet. AirTran was bought by Southwest Airlines in 2011 and ended flights in 2014.
Monday 2 February 1998 Cebu Pacific Air DC-9-32 RP-C1507 c/n 47069/175
DSP Flight 5J387 from Tacloban (TAC) to Cagayan de Oro (CGY) with 5 crew and 99 passengers. While descending in marginal weather conditions, the aircraft struck the slope of Mt Sumagaya (2,234 metres high) , 150m below the summit. YOM : 1967
Airframe hrs : 73784 engines : JT8D-7A. All 104 people aboard died in the crash.
location : 45 km NE of Cagayan de Oro-Lumbia Airport (CGY), Philippines +- 1.5km 8°39’41”N 125°01’35”E (Memorial 8°42’21”N 125°01’12”E)
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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 :
COMAT = Company-owned Material
DSP = domestic scheduled passenger
ISP = international scheduled passenger
RW = runway
YOM = Year of Manufacture
Literature :
Aviation Safety Network > > ASN Aviation Safety Database results