Flight 822 · McDonnell Douglas MD-88
McDonnell Douglas MD-88 · Incident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Charleston International Airport (CHS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL93IA135
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas MD-88
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-88
- 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
- N948DL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GATo Charleston International Airport (CHS), SC
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS CLEARED FOR A VISUAL APPROACH. WHEN THE FLIGHT REACHED THE VISUAL DESCENT POINT ON THE APPROACH, THE FLIGHT CREW TRANSITIONED TO THE VASI. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT THE AIRPLANE WAS STABILIZED ON THE APPROACH. AS THE AIRPLANE APPROACHED THE TOUCHDOWN POINT, THE FIRST OFFICER ADVISED THE PILOT OF A HIGHER THAN NORMAL SINK RATE; THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN HARD ON THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN SOONER THAN EXPECTED. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRFRAME REVEALED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE BETWEEN FUSELAGE STATIONS 1338 THROUGH 1351. THE DIGITAL FLIGHT DATA RECORDER READOUT FROM THE INCIDENT LANDING REVEALED WHEN COMPARED TO THE THREE PERVIOUS LANDINGS THAT THE NOSEUP STABILATOR TRIM WAS TWICE AS STEEP, TOUCHDOWN AIRSPEED WAS 8 TO 14 KNOTS LOWER, NOSEUP ELEVATOR DEFLECTION WAS TWO TO THREE TIMES LARGER, AND THE MAXIMUM PITCH ATTITUDE AT TOUCHDOWN WAS TWO TO FIVE TIMES HIGHER. ACCORDING TO THE MD-88 TAKEOFF AND LANDING BOOKLET, THE LANDING AIRSPEED FOR THE INCIDENT LANDING SHOULD HAVE BEEN 133 KNOTS.
Probable cause
WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED DURING THE LANDING ATTEMPT WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL AND THE SUBSEQUENT COLLISION WITH THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL93IA135
- Event ID
- 20001211X12763
- Case number
- ATL93IA135
- 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: 4d40778c843606541bc5af49da8e8e7e4c9ec0ac0afd1b00cfa4895891b055d8; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:32:23.102Z.