BFO88FA067 · de Havilland DHC-6-200
de Havilland DHC-6-200 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO88FA067
- 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
- General aviation
- 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-6-200
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-6
- 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
- N7267
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DC
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Raising of flaps, not performed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chantilly, VA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT AFTER A MAINTENANCE INSPECTION. THE FLAPS WERE LEFT FULL DOWN AFTER A POST-INSPECTION BY COMPANY MECHANICS, BEFORE THE FLIGHT. WITNESSES STATED THE FLAPS WERE DOWN WHEN THE AIRCRAFT TAXIED TO TAKEOFF ON RWY 19L. WITNESSES STATED THE AIRCRAFT CLIMBED STEEPLY AFTER IT LIFTED OFF WITH A PITCH ATTITUDE UP TO 60 DEGREES. ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE AIRCRAFT CLIMBED TO 200 TO 500 FT AGL, BEFORE IT STALLED AND DESCENDED NOSE DOWN IN A LEFT TURN. THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED ABOUT 300 FT LEFT OF AND 2000 FT DOWN THE RWY. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRCRAFT REVEALED THE FLAPS WERE FULL DOWN. THE SCROLL TYPE CHECKLIST WAS POSITIONED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TAKEOFF CHECK. THE FLIGHT MANUAL RECOMMENDS A 10 DEGREE FLAP SETTING FOR TAKEOFF AND PROHIBITS FLAP FULL DOWN TAKEOFF. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS DHC-6 ACCIDENTS INVOLVING FLAP FULL DOWN RESULTED IN A STEEP TAKEOFF CLIMB AND EXCESSIVE PITCH ATTITUDE FOLLOWED BY A STALL. THE POSITION OF THE CONTROL LOCK SUGGESTS IT MAY HAVE BEEN IN THE LOCKED POSITION DRG THE TKOF.
Probable cause
THE PILOT INADVERTENTLY MISUSED THE FLAPS, BY FAILING TO SET THE FLAPS TO THE PROPER SETTING. THE FLAPS WERE SET FULL DOWN. THIS CAUSED THE AIRCRAFT TO PITCH UP STEEPLY AFTER LIFTOFF. ADDITIONALLY, THE FLIGHT CONTROL LOCK WAS PROBABLY INSTALLED DURING SOME PORTION, IF NOT THE ENTIRE FLIGHT, WHICH PREVENTED FLIGHT CONTROL OPERATION. THE PILOT SUBSEQUENTLY FAILED TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE FLYING SPEED AND THE AIRCRAFT STALLED. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS ARE THE PILOT'S INATTENTION AND HIS FAILURE TO ADEQUATELY USE THE CHECKLIST.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO88FA067
- Event ID
- 20001213X26131
- Case number
- BFO88FA067
- 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: 52c89451c4469e77406f8a1a3ab2221ce56e35b0c6f51580186096bb3c2c1068; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:38:31.071Z.