DCA87MA031 · Learjet 35A
Corporate Jets Learjet 35A · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Allegheny County Airport (AGC) to TETERBORO, NJ
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA87MA031
- 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
- 2 · 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
Learjet 35A
- Aircraft type
- Learjet 35
- 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
- N100EP
- Operator
- Corporate Jets
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Allegheny County Airport (AGC)To TETERBORO, NJ
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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
- Airspeed › Inadequate
- Copilot/second pilot › Raising of flaps, premature
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
- Stall › Inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COPLT (DUAL STUDENT) WAS TO GET A PROF CHECK ON THE 1ST LEG OF THE FLT WITH A SIMULATED SINGLE ENG PWR LOSS ON TKOF.ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, THE TKOF WAS NORMAL UNTIL LIFT-OFF APRX 3200' DOWN THE RWY; BUT AFTER LIFT-OFF, THE ACFT CLBD ONLY ABOUT 50' & DIDN'T SEEM TO ACCELERATE. THEY RPRTD THE NOSE PITCHED UP & THE ACFT WENT IN A STEEP BANK ATTITUDE NR THE DEP END OF THE RWY. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT DSCNDD & CRASHED IN WOODED TERRAIN IN A RGT WING DOWN, NOSE HI ATTITUDE. A BY- STANDER TRIED TO GET IN THE ACFT TO RESCUE THE PLTS, BUT THE DOOR WAS JAMMED & HE WAS UNABLE TO BREAK THE CABIN WINDOWS.A FIRE ERUPTED & ENGULFED THE ACFT. DUE TO ROUGH TERRAIN, THERE WAS A DELAY IN GETTING FIRE FIGHTING EQUIPMENT TO THE ACDNT SITE. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURES WERE FND. THE GEAR, FLAPS & SPOILERS WERE FND IN THE RETRACTED PSN. FOR TKOF, THE FLAPS SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXTD TO THE 8 OR 20 DEG POSITION. THE STALL SPEEDS FOR 20 DEG, 8 DEG & NO FLAPS WERE 104.5, 109.0 & 119.5 KTS, RESPECTIVELY. THE CAPT WAS AN FAA DESIGNATED FLT EXAMINER & A CERTIFIED FLT INSTRUCTOR (CFI).
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA87MA031
- Event ID
- 20001213X30905
- Case number
- DCA87MA031
- 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: dcb4c747dfcb03ba0031d11f1aa7c4fece65b63ef12ec8c273c81779e755ae89; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:08:48.017Z.