Trans World Airlines Flight 605
Douglas DC-9-32 · Incident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during landing
From Bradley International Airport (BDL) to St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI96IA059
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Instrument 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
- N925L
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bradley International Airport (BDL), Hartford, CTTo St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Ram/induction air › Ice ingestion
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The captain reported that on landing, after he lowered the nosewheel and applied reverse thrust, that 'something didn't sound right. It was quieter than normal.' As the airplane slowed to taxi speed, the nose started turning right. The captain put in steering controls, but the airplane continued to turn, and began to slide. The airplane stopped near the edge of the runway, 70 degrees off runway heading. The captain then realized the engines were not operating. A witness observed the airplane being 'engulfed in a cloud of snow,' as it landed. 'It sounded like it lost intake air, then became silent.' The reported weather was a 600 foot ceiling, visibility 3/8 of a mile in snow and fog, and surface winds of 360 degrees at 16 knots gusting to 27 knots. The tower reported 1/4 inch of snow on the runway and braking action as fair to poor. A witness reported slush accumulations on the runway greater than 1/4 inch. The engine manufacturer stated the potential for engine flameout exists if 1/4 inch of slush or more is ingested when the engines are at low power, as in landing.
Probable cause
loss of induction air into the engine inlets resulting in simultaneous loss of power on both engines. Factors relating to this incident were: disconnection of the airplane's hydraulic pumps and generators, slush on the runway and the hydroplaning condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI96IA059
- Event ID
- 20001207X04969
- Case number
- CHI96IA059
- 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: 9df347171168d21332458b8b63cb7704605fc5c358c2c7a20d0afec308f17585; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:55:28.357Z.