FTW90IA086 · British Aerospace HS125-800
Exxon British Aerospace HS125-800 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90IA086
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
British Aerospace HS125-800
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace HS125
- 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
- N802X
- Operator
- Exxon
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, TXTo Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJ
- 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 91F: Special Flt Ops.
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Miscellaneous eqpt/furnishings, lavatories › Leak
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CORPORATE JET WAS CRUISING AT FL330 WHEN THE PILOT NOTED THAT THE AILERONS WERE LOCKED. HE FOUND THAT THE AFT LAVATORY WATER SYSTEM HAD LEAKED TWO AND A HALF GALLONS OF POTABLE WATER INTO THE KEEL AREA OF THE FUSELAGE AROUND THE AILERON CABLES AND PULLEYS. THE PILOT SURMISED THAT THE WATER WAS FROZEN AROUND THE CABLES AND DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. THE OUTSIDE AIR TEMPERATURE WAS -50 C. DURING FINAL APPROACH, AILERON CONTROL WAS REGAINED AND A NORMAL LANDING WAS ACCOMPLISHED. EXAMINATION OF THE LAVATORY WATER SYSTEM REVEALED A CRACKED COPPER OUTPUT LINE ON THE WATER HEATER UNIT.
Probable cause
THE LEAKING AFT LAVATORY WATER HEATER UNIT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90IA086
- Event ID
- 20001212X22717
- Case number
- FTW90IA086
- 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: local date, investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-03-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f852fd2876c7cc9912cacf956cdc144a9f935bade9527150408daad79211f7e5; retrieved 2026-09-23T06:37:32.511Z.