Grand Airways Douglas DC-9-32 incident
Douglas DC-9-32 · Incident en route
From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95IA148
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Douglas DC-9-32
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-9
- 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
- N5342L
- Operator
- Grand Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZTo Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Dallas, TX
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Copilot/second pilot › Incapacitation(cardiovascular)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE IN CRUISE FLIGHT, THE FIRST OFFICER TOLD THE CAPTAIN HE WAS ILL. THE CAPTAIN ASSUMED CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE. LATER, THE FIRST OFFICER SAID HE WAS FEELING BETTER AND RESUMED FLYING THE AIRPLANE. ABOUT 30 MINUTES LATER, THE SYMPTOMS RETURNED. THE CAPTAIN ASSUMED AIRCRAFT CONTROL AGAIN AND DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. AS THE AIRPLANE WAS BEING DIVERTED TO ABILENE, TEXAS, A PASSENGER BEGAN CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION. THE FIRST OFFICER WAS LATER PRONOUNCED DEAD AT A LOCAL HOSPITAL. AUTOPSY PROTOCOL LISTED 'ISCHEMIC HEART DISEASE' AS THE CAUSE OF DEATH. A FEDERAL AIR SURGEON SAID THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF 'OLD MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION' AND 'HIGH PROBABILITY OF RECENT MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION.'
Probable cause
INCAPACITATION OF THE FIRST OFFICER DUE TO A HEART ATTACK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95IA148
- Event ID
- 20001207X03112
- Case number
- FTW95IA148
- 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, damage. 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: 08e08785e258c37f70bbef6375379571a995e79100e065c14a532fec94153171; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:43:10.892Z.