ATL90IA124 · Douglas DC-9-31
Douglas DC-9-31 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From an unrecorded airport to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL90IA124
- 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
Douglas DC-9-31
- 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
- N8982E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NC
- 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 · climb to 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
- Electrical system, electric relay › Failure, total
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE FLIGHT CREW HEARD A LOUD 'CLUNK', FOLLOWED BY THE RIGHT GENERATOR FALLING OFF LINE. AFTER UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTEMPTING TO RESET THE RIGHT GENERATOR, THE LEFT GENERATOR FELL OFF LINE. AN ATTEMPT TO RESET THE LEFT GENERATOR WAS ALSO UNSUCCESSFUL. THE CREW SELECTED EMERGENCY POWER AND RETURNED TO THE AIRPORT FOR AN UNEVENTFUL LANDING. EXAMINATION OF THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM AFTER THE INCIDENT REVEALED THAT THE AC CROSS TIE RELAY HAD FAILED IN THE 'CLOSED' POSITION. THIS PREVENTED EITHER GENERATOR FROM BEING PUT BACK ON LINE. BOTH GENERATORS AND ASSOCIATED COMPONENTS WERE EXAMINED AND NO EVIDENCE OF MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE WAS OBSERVED.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE AC CROSS TIE RELAY, WHICH PREVENTED THE GENERATORS FROM BEING RECONNECTED TO THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM. A FACTOR IN THE INCIDENT WAS THE LOSS OF THE LEFT GENERATOR IN FLIGHT. FACTORS INCLUDE INADVERTENTLY DISCONNECTING THE LEFT GENERATOR WHILE TROUBLESHOOTING THE RIGHT GENERATOR LOSS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL90IA124
- Event ID
- 20001212X23067
- Case number
- ATL90IA124
- 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: 74b26842e0cd557aeb7b13908279cc9a46f86a1e1d756baa1d8006bbb3c7ffa8; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:02:20.676Z.