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Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 incident

30 Mar 1988 · Boston, MA, United States

McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 · Incident: fire while taxiing

From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)

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Event

NTSB case
DCA88IA044
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-10-40

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
N154US
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), NEW YORK, NYTo Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
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
Taxi · from runway
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
Fire
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

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
  • Electrical system, electric wiring › Arcing
  • Electrical system, electric wiring › Loose

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Boston, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

DRG TAXI TO GATE AFTER LDG, CREW STARTED APU NORMALLY. WHILE TAXIING NR 3 PNEUMATIC DUCT FAIL LT ILLUMINATED. LATER, THE CENTER ACCESSORY COMPT (CAC) DOOR WARNING LT ILLUMINATED AND GND PERS SAW SMOKE EMANATING FM THE FUSELAGE OUTFLOW VALVES. AFTER ENG SHUTDOWN, SMOKE ENTERED THE CABIN AND THE APU TRIPPED OFF. FIRE DEPT PERS FND CAC OUTSIDE DOOR HOT, THEN, USING CABIN FLOOR HATCH, OBSRVED 1-2 FT HIGH FLAMES IN CAC. FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED WITH DMG LIMITED TO CAC. INVEST REVEALED IMPROPER/LOOSE BATTERY GND CONNECTION. NORMAL CABLE MOVEMENT WOULD LOOSEN CONNECTION DRG BATT DISCONNECT. BURNED INSULATION BLANKETS MET SPEC BUT WERE COATED WITH SYNTHETIC HYD FLUID (SLAT ACTUATOR LKG) AND JET FUEL. FIRE PATTERN SUGGESTED FUEL SEEPAGE ALONG BULKHEAD FASTENER LINE. BATT GND LAST INSTALLED NOV,87. BATT LAST CHDG 2 WKS BEFORE INCIDENT. SERVICE BULLETIN PERTAINING TO BATT GND NOT COMPLIED. INOPERATIVE CAC DRAIN VALVES ALLOWED FUEL TO POOL IN CAC BILGE. NO CAC FIRE WARNING OR EXTINGUISHER SYSTEM WAS INSTALLED.

Probable cause

THE IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE BATTERY GROUND CONNECTION THAT RESULTED IN PREMATURE LOOSENING OF THE CONNECTION AND ELECTRICAL ARC IGNITION OF POOLED FUEL IN THE CAC BILGE. THE FUEL WAS NOT DRAINED OVERBOARD DUE TO INOPERATIVE CAC BILGE AREA DRAIN VALVES. CONTRIBUTING TO THE INCIDENT WAS NORTHWEST'S NON-COMPLIANCE WITH A SERVICE BULLETIN TO MODIFY THE GROUND CABLE ATTACHMENT BRACKET TO PREVENT LOOSENING OF THE CONNECTION.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DCA88IA044
Event ID
20001213X25244
Case number
DCA88IA044
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
  • 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: 1fc2266995976601aed0523fb04dae497e1d2e717b540f38fc8a0b19482936c0; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:24:16.168Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N154US; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, NWAA.