DCA85AA027 · McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA85AA027
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- 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
- N129AA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), DALLAS/FT WORTH, TX
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Landing gear, tire › Failure, total
- Landing gear, tire › Foreign object
- Landing gear, tire › Leak
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of San Juan, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AFTER LANDING AT SAN JUAN, THE ACFT WAS PARKED AT THE CUSTOMS AREA, THEN WAS TOWED TO GATE 15 & LOADED FOR THE NEXT FLT.THE PUSH-BACK WAS SUCH THAT THE CREW HAD TO TAXI TO THE GEN AVN PARKING AREA & TURN AROUND BFR PROCEEDING TO RWY 8 FOR DEPARTURE. WHEN CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF, THE WND WAS FROM 160 DEG AT 11 GUSTING 22 KTS. AT APRX 120 KTS ON THE TAKEOFF ROLL,A LOUD RUMBLING SOUND OCCURRED WHICH INCREASED RAPIDLY, THEN THE ACFT BEGAN TO VIBRATE. AT APRX THE V1 SPD OF 141 KTS, THE CAPT REJECTED THE TAKEOFF USING MAX BRAKING. UNABLE TO STOP ON THE REMAINING RWY, HE ANGLED THE ACFT TO THE SAFEST AREA. THE FLT ENGR'S BACK WAS INJURED AS THE ACFT HIT THE REIL SYS. THE ACFT STOPPED WITH ITS NOSE IN A LAGOON. DUE TO TREES, WTR, ACFT ATTITUDE & ONE ACCIDENTAL DISARMING, ONLY 4 OF 8 EMERG SLIDES WERE USED. A LAB ANALYSIS INDICATED THAT THE #7 TIRE HAD FAILED DUE TO LOW INFLATION, MOST LIKELY FROM FOD. DURING THE ABORT, ITS COMPANION TIRE FAILED FROMOVERLOAD. BLACK MARKS ON THE TAXIWAY REVEALED THE #7 TIRE STARTED LOSING PRESSURE WHILE THE ACFT WAS TAXIING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA85AA027
- Event ID
- 20001214X36734
- Case number
- DCA85AA027
- 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: e03c44f58a198e20b1b0c5b80e4caee4a187340ab206c3a8f2043ec0c1f40c57; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:20:16.353Z.