DCA94MA061 · Learjet 25D
Learjet 25D · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Lakefront Airport (NEW) to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA94MA061
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 12 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Learjet 25D
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 25
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- XABBA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakefront Airport (NEW), New Orleans, LATo Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 129: Foreign
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · IFR final approach
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, poor
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, below
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chantilly, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE CRASHED 0.8 NM SOUTH OF THE THRESHOLD OF THE RUNWAY DURING AN ILS APPROACH IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. THE CAPTAIN WAS NOT AUTHORIZED TO ATTEMPT THE APPROACH AND WAS RELATIVELY INEXPERIENCED FOR AN APPROACH UNDER THE WEATHER CONDITIONS. THE CAPTAIN FAILED TO ADHERE TO ACCEPTABLE STANDARDS OF AIRMANSHIP DURING TWO UNSTABILIZED APPROACHES. AFTER THE UNSUCCESSFUL ILS APPROACH TO RUNWAY 1R, THE CAPTAIN SHOULD HAVE HELD FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE WEATHER, REQUESTED THE RUNWAY 19L ILS, OR PROCEEDED TO HIS ALTERNATE. AN OPERATING GPWS ABOARD THE AIRPLANE WOULD HAVE PROVIDED CONTINUOUS WARNING TO THE CREW FOR THE LAST 64 SECONDS OF FLIGHT AND MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE POOR DECISIONMAKING, POOR AIRMANSHIP, AND RELATIVE INEXPERIENCE OF THE CAPTAIN IN INITIATING AND CONTINUING AN UNSTABILIZED INSTRUMENT APPROACH THAT LED TO A DESCENT BELOW THE AUTHORIZED ALTITUDE WITHOUT VISUAL CONTACT WITH THE RUNWAY ENVIRONMENT. CONTRIBUTING TO THE CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LACK OF A GROUND PROXIMITY WARNING SYSTEM ON THE AIRPLANE. (NTSB REPORT AAR-95/02)
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA94MA061
- Event ID
- 20001206X01515
- Case number
- DCA94MA061
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: eab84af8203d5097efbd574e282b43aeb760025530c69464b62d6aff49c6c0d6; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:49:18.731Z.