DCA90MA002 · Boeing 727-232
Boeing 727-232 · Accident: fire/explosion while standing
From an unrecorded airport to Maikwak Airport (VEG)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA90MA002
- 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
- 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
- Unknown
Boeing 727-232
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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
- N530DA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Maikwak Airport (VEG), EDMONTON CANADA
- 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
- Standing
- 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/explosion
- 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
- Oxygen system, passenger › Leak
- Oxygen system, passenger › Undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CREW HEARD A MUFFLED EXPLOSION & SAW FLAMES COMING FROM THE VENT NEAR SEAT 3-D WHILE ACFT WAS PARKKED AT GATE. LOCATION OF FIRE PREVENTED CREW FROM RETURNING TO COCKPIT TO NOTIFY CFR & ILLUMINATE EMERG FLOOR LIGHTING. PASSENGERS & CREW EVACUATED ACFT. SECOND OFFICER, LAST TO LEAVE, COULD NOT REACH REAR AIRSTAIRS & EXITED VIA EMERG WINDOW EXIT AFTER HAVING DIFFICULTY IN LOCATING AN EXIT BECAUSE OF SMOKE. A MECHANIC NOTED LOW PASSENGER OXYGEN SUPPLY DURING PREFLIGHT & REPLACED OXYGEN CYLINDERS. WHILE EXITING THE ELECTRICAL EQUIP BAY THE MECHANIC SAW A WHITE FLASH ENGULF THE OXYGEN SYSTEM FLOW CONTROL UNIT. HE ATTEMPTED TO HAVE CFR NOTIFIED OF THE FIRE USING A HAND HELD RADIO TO NO AVAIL. THE PASSENGER OXYGEN SYSTEM HAD 6 LOW OXYGEN QUANTITY MAINTENANCE WRITE-UPS DURING PREVIOUS 30 DAYS BUT WAS NOT 'FLAGGED' BY COMPANY AUTOMATED TREND ANALYSIS PROGRAM BECAUSE OF THE JOB TITLE OF THE PERSON ENTERING THE WRITE-UPS. INSPECTION OF DELTA'S FLEET REVEALED 35 OXYGEN SYSTEM LEAKS ON OTHER ACFT.
Probable cause
A FIRE WHICH STARTED IN THE PASSENGER OXYGEN SYSTEM FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FAILURE OF DELTA AIRLINES TO RECOGNIZE, ATTEND TO AND CORRECT REPEATED LEAKS IN THE OXYGEN SYSTEM.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA90MA002
- Event ID
- 20001213X29575
- Case number
- DCA90MA002
- 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: b200f3be42baf559f95a476643d4f4336d8f93243fd753aee87f899bc81057d9; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:07:26.280Z.