DCA85AA009 · Lockheed 188A
Lockheed 188A · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) to Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA85AA009
- 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
- 3 · 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
Lockheed 188A
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed 188
- 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
- N357Q
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), Detroit, MITo Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), Kansas City, MO
- 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING ARRIVAL TO THE KANSAS CITY DOWNTOWN ARPT, THE FLT WAS VECTORED FOR A VOR RWY 3 APCH, THEN WAS CLEARED FOR THE APCH & TO CIRCLE & LAND ON RWY 36. ON FINAL APCH, THE ACFT WAS HI & WAS NOT IN A POSITION TO LAND, SO THE FLT WAS CLEARED TO CIRCLE LEFT FOR ANOTHER APCH TO LAND. THE AIRCREW ACKNOWLEDGED & BEGAN CIRCLING LEFT WHICH TOOK THEM IN THE VICINITY OF THE FAIRFAX ARPT. A SHORT TIME LATER, THE ATC CONTROLLER CAUTIONED THAT THE FLT MIGHT BE LINING UP FOR THE FAIRFAX ARPT. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE CREW INITIATED A MISSED APCH & WERE INSTRUCTED TO TURN TO 360 DEG & CLIMB TO 3000 FT. THE ACFT BEGAN A STEEP CLIMB TO 3100 FT, STALLED & ENTERED A STEEP DESCENT. BEFORE THE DESCENT WAS ARRESTED, THE ACFT IMPACTED IN A PUBLIC WATER TREATMENT PLANT. CVR RECORDINGS INDICATED THAT THE 1ST OFFICER WAS FLYING THE ACFT DURING THEEN ROUTE DESCENT, VOR APCH & CIRCLING APCH, THEN THE CAPTAIN TOOK CONTROL DURING THE MISSED APCH. AN EXAM OF THE WRECK- AGE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF AN AIRFRAME OR POWERPLANT PROBLEM. ALSO, THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE THAT THE CARGO HAD SHIFTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA85AA009
- Event ID
- 20001214X35492
- Case number
- DCA85AA009
- 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: 72bc70646b1d23a09f4dfec7eb11e245496f8de3fb64a12b07ae2a2c539c4bf9; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:27:07.747Z.