Air New Orleans British Aerospace 3101 accident
British Aerospace 3101 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA87MA033
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
British Aerospace 3101
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace 3101
- 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
- N331CY
- Operator
- Air New Orleans
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS), FT. WALTON BCH, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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 › Checklist, not followed
- Pilot in command › Crew/group coordination, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not understood
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Kenner, LA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT OVERRAN THE DEPT END OF THE RWY AND CAME TO REST ON A HIWAY BARRIER AFTER AN ABORTED TAKEOFF FOLLOWING ENGINE TORQUE OSCILLATIONS. THE CAPT TRIED REDUCING THE POWER LEVERS AS HE HAD BEEN TAUGHT TO 'GET OFF' THE TTL SINCE HE THOUGHT THE TTL WAS BYPASSING FUEL. HIS ACTIONS INCREASED THE OSCILLATIONS AND YAWING SO THE CAPT ABORTED THE TAKEOFF. THE TAKEOFF HAD BEEN EXPEDITED AT A REQUEST FROM THE CONTROLLER. THE CREW FAILED TO ASSURE THAT THE RPM LEVERS WERE FULL FORWARD IN THE TAKEOFF (100 PERCENT) POSITION . SUBSEQUENT TESTS PRODUCED TORQUE OSCILLATIONS WITH TAKEOFF POWER AND THE RPM LEVERS IN ANY POSITION OTHER THAN TAKEOFF. BOTH CREW MEMBERS HAD RELATIVELY LITTLE FLT EXPERIENCE IN THE BAE-3101 WHICH DIFFERS IN RPM CONTROL LEVER PROCEDURES FROM OTHER ACFT WITH WHICH THE FLT CREW WAS MORE FAMILIAR. (SEE NTSB/AAR-88/06).
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA87MA033
- Event ID
- 20001213X30906
- Case number
- DCA87MA033
- 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: 9262a051fa6f366baf4686f1c405b51bbed9f203a761742782853eb8739ad870; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:40:59.635Z.