Air Transport International Flight 805 was a regularly scheduled domestic cargo flight from
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
to
Toledo
Toledo most commonly refers to:
* Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain
* Province of Toledo, Spain
* Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States
Toledo may also refer to:
Places Belize
* Toledo District
* Toledo Settlement
Bolivia
* Toledo, Or ...
operated by Burlington Air Express. On February 15, 1992, the
Douglas DC-8
The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is an early long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body jetliner designed and produced by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. Work began in 1952 towards the United States Air Force's (USA ...
operating the flight crashed during a second go-around attempt at
Toledo Express Airport
Toledo Express Airport, officially Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport , is a civil-military airport in Swanton and Monclova townships west of Toledo in western Lucas County, Ohio, United States. It opened in 1954–55 as a replacement t ...
, killing all four people on board. The
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...
(NTSB) determined that the accident was caused by pilot error due to the aircraft's control not being maintained.
[ ]
Copy at
Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is a private university focused on aviation and aerospace programs based in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona, United States. It is the largest accredited university system specializing in ...
.
Background
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a Douglas DC-8-63F registered as N794AL, with
serial number
A serial number (SN) is a unique identifier used to ''uniquely'' identify an item, and is usually assigned incrementally or sequentially.
Despite being called serial "numbers", they do not need to be strictly numerical and may contain letters ...
45923
first flew in 1968. It was initially a passenger aircraft and was delivered to
Scandinavian Airlines
The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden.
Including its subsidiaries SAS Link and ...
on August 16 the same year. It then operated for
Icelandair
Icelandair is the flag carrier of Iceland.
Linked from here It is part of the Icelandair Group and operates to destinations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean from its main airline hub, hub at Keflavík International Airport. Its smaller dom ...
,
Thai Airways
Thai Airways International plc () is the flag carrier airline of Thailand. Formed in 1961 as a joint venture between Scandinavian Airlines, SAS and Thai Airways Company, the airline has its corporate headquarters in Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, Chat ...
, and
TransOcean Airways, before being converted into a freighter and sold to Burlington Air Express.
It had logged 70084 airframe hours in 22804 takeoff and landing cycles and was powered by four
Pratt & Whitney JT3D-7 turbofan engines.
Previous incident
On November 13, 1991, while operating a flight from Toledo to Los Angeles (for Flagship Express), the accident aircraft's cargo door opened after takeoff from Toledo. The aircraft (sustaining minor damage) was able to land safely, and the three crew members survived with no injuries. The failure of the cargo door had been caused by the flight engineer failing to verify that the door was closed properly. The flight crew was unaware of the improperly closed door as damaged wiring caused the door indicator light to go out despite the door itself not having been closed properly. In addition, the door had been improperly installed with weak locks.
Crew
In command was 59-year-old
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
Harry Baker, who had logged 16,382 flight hours, including 2,382 hours on the DC-8. The
first officer was 37-year-old Tim Hupp who had logged 5,082 flight hours, with 3,135 of them on the DC-8 (1,148 hours as a flight engineer and 1,992 hours as a first officer). The
flight engineer
A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is a member of an aircraft's flight crew who is responsible for monitoring and operating its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referr ...
was 57-year-old Jose Montalbo, who had logged 21,697 flight hours, including 7,697 hours on the DC-8. Raman Patel, a pilot at Buffalo Airways, was also on board as a non-revenue passenger.
Accident
Flight 805 departed from Seattle on-time at 21:45
Eastern Standard Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behind ...
(EST). First officer Hupp was the pilot flying. The flight was uneventful until it approached Toledo.
Flight 805 was cleared for an ILS approach to runway 07 with the controller advising the crew about light to moderate precipitation. At 03:02, Flight 805 was cleared to land, and captain Baker acknowledged the transmission. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) then recorded the flight crew going over the landing checklist. After this however, captain Baker started complaining to first officer Hupp that he was flying too slow with the flaps not having been extended into the landing configuration. He even told him, "You're not even on the
xpletivelocalizer at all." In other words, the aircraft had failed to capture the localizer and was below the glide path, resulting in an unstable approach. Baker subsequently declared a go-around at 03:13.
When the approach controller asked Flight 805 on why they initiated go-around, captain Baker responded, "We lost the localizer close in there...couldn't position ourselves on final...we had the glidepath, but not the localizer." The approach controller gave Flight 805 a 100 degree heading for another approach.
During the second approach the aircraft managed to capture the localizer, with captain Baker advising first officer Hupp about the wind conditions. At 03:21, Flight 805 was again cleared to land on runway 07. However, the approach became destabilized again, with the ground proximity warning system (GPWS) sounding three "glideslope" warnings and three "sink rate" warnings. There were also three changes in power. At 03:24, Baker told Hupp that he was taking over control of the aircraft and initiated another go-around.
At 03:25, first officer Hupp reported the go-around to the tower controller and was instructed to climb and maintain and then turn left onto a 300 degree heading. However, the aircraft began to bank 80 degrees and pitch up 25 degrees. Captain Baker transferred control of the aircraft back to first officer Hupp and asked him if he had the control, to which he responded, "I got it." Hupp then attempted to raise the aircraft's nose and level the wings, but was unable to recover control. At 03:26 the aircraft crashed into the ground away from runway 07. All four people on board were killed instantly, and the aircraft was destroyed.
Parts of the aircraft landed in the backyard of a house. No one on the ground was killed, but thirteen people on the ground were injured; one person in the house that the debris landed near was injured by falling plaster caused by the force of the impact, and 12 firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation.
Investigation
During the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation both flight recorders were recovered. Investigators discovered that when captain Baker took control, he became spatially disoriented and accidentally caused the plane to enter an unrecoverable bank and attitude. The NTSB also focused on the aircraft's
attitude indicators (ADI), human factors, the power changes by using the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), and the manner of first officer Hupp's approach.
Because of the aircraft's previous cargo door incident, the NTSB considered the possibility that the aircraft had once again experienced a cargo door opening mid-flight. Seven door latches were found; one of which had lost its latch pins on impact. If the cargo door had opened in mid-flight the CVR would suddenly record a loud sound of rushing air. Flight 805's CVR did not record this, nor the flight crew did bring up any abnormal sounds. The crew also didn't bring up the door warning light. Thus, the NTSB concluded that the cargo door had been functioning normally, did not open in mid-flight, and was not a factor in the accident.
The ADI malfunction was the most likely scenario, as the NTSB was unable to determine its readings at impact. However, only one ADI was recovered and had been severely damaged from the crash.
The NTSB alluded to previous accidents which involved ADI malfunctions.
The NTSB did believe that the first officer's ADI was functioning normally at the time of the accident because of his immediate response to captain Baker transferring control of the aircraft back to him, and properly executing the recovery attempt.
The report stated:
In addition, the flight crew's interactions were not representing proper crew resource management (CRM).
The NTSB was also unable to determine why the first officer caused the aircraft to destabilize on approach.
The NTSB released the final report on November 19, 1992, with the "probable cause" stating:
The NTSB was unable to determine with absolute certainty if any of these aforementioned factors (except for the cargo door incident which had been ruled out) had caused or contributed to the accident. The NTSB could not determine the time that control of the aircraft was lost.
Aftermath
The NTSB did not issue any recommendations following the accident.
See also
*
Air India Flight 855
Air India Flight 855 was a scheduled passenger flight from Bombay (now Mumbai), India, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On 1 January 1978, the Boeing 747 operating the flight crashed into the Arabian Sea about off the coast of Bandra, less than ...
*
Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509
Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 was a Boeing 747-2B5F, registered HL7451 bound for Milan Malpensa Airport, that crashed due to instrument malfunction and pilot error on 22 December 1999 shortly after take-off from London Stansted Airport where the ...
*
List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
__NOTOC__
This list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft includes notable events that have a corresponding Wikipedia article. Entries in this list involve passenger or cargo aircraft that are operating commercially and meet ...
References
External links
NTSB accident report*
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in the 1990s
Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1992
Aviation accidents and incidents in Ohio
Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error
Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-8
1992 in Ohio
February 1992 in the United States