CHI90IA166 · McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 · Incident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90IA166
- 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 DC-9-32
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell 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
- N948ML
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo not recorded
- 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 · descent
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A PASSENGER TRANSPORT EXPERIENCED SEVERE TURBULENCE DURING AN EN ROUTE DESCENT TO DESTINATION. THE FLIGHT'S FORECAST INDICATED THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IN THE DESTINATION VICINITY. THE CREW HEARD DESTINATION ATIS ANNOUNCE SEVERE TURBULENCE ON APPROACH BUT RECALLED NO ATC ADVISORY STATING TURBULENCE WAS SEVERE. THE PILOT COMPLIED WITH ATC'S REQUEST TO SLOW FOR TRAFFIC SEPARATION, PLACING THE SPEED BELOW THAT RECOMMENDED FOR TURBULENCE PENETRATION. THE AIRPLANE WAS TURNING TO AVOID CLOUDS AND VIRGA, WITH SPEEDBRAKES EXTENDED AND AUTOPILOT ENGAGED WHEN IT ENTERED INCREASING TURBULENCE. THE AIRPLANE PITCHED UP 20 DEGREES AND ROLLED TO 45 DEGREES. THE PILOT RIGHTED THE AIRPLANE AND STOPPED THE DESCENT 500 FEET BELOW ASSIGNED ALTITUDE. SPEED BRAKE EXTENSION INCREASES ROLL RATE. AUTOPILOT USE IN SEVERE TURBULENCE IS RECOMMENDED ONLY IN THE PITCH-HOLD MODE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND'S INADEQUATE WEATHER EVALUATION. FACTORS IN THE INCIDENT WERE THE WEATHER AND ARTCC'S FAILURE TO ISSUE A WEATHER ADVISORY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90IA166
- Event ID
- 20001212X23354
- Case number
- CHI90IA166
- 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: 098b0c6bd707638edbc774d886d95789c2c5dd960f1e941e0d18a49109bece11; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:01:33.206Z.