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Eastern Air Lines McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 accident

3 Oct 1990 · Cape Canaveral, FL, United States

McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to PBI · West Palm Beach, FL

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Event

NTSB case
MIA91LA005
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
Accident
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
1 · 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-9-31

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
N8923E
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo PBI · West Palm Beach, FL
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 · 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
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

  • Flight attendant › Procedures/directives, not followed
  • Passenger › Passenger briefing, not followed
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
  • Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cape Canaveral, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

EASTERN AIRLINE FLT 791 ENCTRD TURBULENCE WHILE EN ROUTE AT 31,000 FT AS IT FLEW THRU THE OVERHANG OF A THUNDERSTORM. FLT THRU OVERHANGS WAS CONTRARY TO THE COMPANY FLT OPNS PROCEDURES. THREE PSGRS RCVD SERIOUS INJURIES & ONE OF THESE (84 YRS OLD) DIED 20 DAYS AFTER THE ACDNT. THE MEDICAL EXAMINER LISTED THE CAUSE OF DEATH AS 'ASPIRATION PNEUMONIA AND PNEUMOTHORAX DUE TO BLUNT TRAUMA DUE TO COMMERCIAL AIRLINE TURBULENCE ENCOUNTER.' CONTRIBUTING TO THE DEATH WAS 'OCCLUSIVE CORONARY ATHEROSCLEROSIS.' ALSO, 23 PSGRS RCVD MINOR INJURIES. ACCORDING TO FLT ATTENDANTS, ALL INJURED PSGRS WERE EITHER STANDING IN THE AISLE OR LAVARATORIES OR IN SEATS WITHOUT BELTS ON. THE SEAT BELT SIGN HAD BEEN ON SINCE DEPARTURE; BEFORE DEPARTURE, FLT ATTENDANTS HAD BRIEFED THE PSGRS TO REMAIN SEATED WITH BELTS ON AT ALL TIMES WHILE THE SEAT BELT LIGHT WAS ILLUMINATED. FLT ATTENDANTS INDCD THAT THEY HAD NOT ENFORCED THE SEAT BELT INSTRUCTION.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE CAPTAIN TO FOLLOW PROCEDURES, HIS IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION BY ALLOWING THE AIRCRAFT TO CONTINUE INTO THE OVERHANG (ANVIL) OF A THUNDERSTORM, FAILURE OF THE PASSENGERS TO ABIDE BY PROCEDURES/INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING USE OF SEAT BELTS, AND FAILURE OF THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TO ENFORCE THE USE OF SEATBELTS. THE WEATHER CONDITION (TURBULENCE) WAS A RELATED FACTOR.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA91LA005
Event ID
20001212X24506
Case number
MIA91LA005
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 1990-10-04.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: c06bae745e57dfd881aea17f8d5eb0e3cabd4c8eecbfefdc020c1838a4744556; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:05:26.703Z.