Eastern Metro Express de Havilland DHC-8-101/102 DHC-8-101/ incident
de Havilland DHC-8-101/102 DHC-8-101/ · Incident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL88IA146
- 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
de Havilland DHC-8-101/102 DHC-8-101/
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-8
- 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
- N804MX
- Operator
- Eastern Metro Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GATo Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS), FT.WALTON 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Lubricating system, oil line › Fractured
- Turbine assembly, turbine blade › Corroded
- Turbine assembly, turbine blade › Fractured
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING CRUISE FLIGHT AT 12,000 FT, THE FLIGHT CREW OF THE DHC-8 OBSERVED A LOW OIL PRESSURE WARNING LIGHT. ABOUT FIVE SECONDS LATER, THE RIGHT ENGINE FIRE WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED. FIRE WAS CONFIRMED AND THE EXTINGUISHER DISCHARGED. THE FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED BUT FLARED UP AGAIN, WHEREUPON THE SECOND BOTTLE WAS FIRED. THE FIRE WAS EXTINGUISHED AND A LANDING COMPLETED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. INSPECTION REVEALED BROKEN OIL LINES TO THE NUMBER 6 & 7 BEARINGS. FURTHER INVESTIGATION REVEALED FAILED LOW PRESSURE TURBINE BLADES DUE TO INTERNAL CORROSION. NEW SOLID BLADES ARE UNDER ENGINEERING EVALUATION ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL88IA146
- Event ID
- 20001213X25384
- Case number
- ATL88IA146
- 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. 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: 0f54d094ec6f8213b68e9260b4ad91d850d1a3d300c9671f40f1e44067e06a38; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:22:55.120Z.