United Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61 incident
McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61 · Incident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Chicago, IL to Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI84IA093
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-8
- 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
- N8081U
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago, ILTo Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), Toronto
- 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
- 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 on ground/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Throttle/power control, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AS THE CAPT APPLIED POWER & RELEASED BRAKES TO BEGIN THE TAKEOFF, THE ACFT STARTED TO DRIFT TO THE RIGHT. THE CAPT STATED THAT HE CLOSED THE THROTTLES & PUT THE #1 & #2 THROTTLES IN REVERSE. THE ACFT THEN BEGAN TO VEER LEFT & SPUN AROUND NEARLY 1-1/2 TIMES. THE 1ST OFFICER STATED THAT AS THE ACFT INITIALLY DRIFTED TO THE RIGHT, HE NOTED THAT THE #4 ENG WAS NOT SPOOLING UP & HE SO INFORMED THE CAPT. THE RWY CENTERLINE HAD BEEN DEICED & WAS REPORTED WET WITH SCATTERED AREAS OF SNOW; BRAKING ACTION HAD BEEN REPORTED AS GOOD. THE CAPT SAID THAT LIGHT RAIN OR MIST WAS PRESENT AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT. THE UNDERSIDE OF THE #3 ENG COWLING WAS GASHED DURING THE INCIDENT & A LANDING LIGHT HAD TO BE REPLACED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI84IA093
- Event ID
- 20001214X38520
- Case number
- CHI84IA093
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1984-01-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ec453cf2878b150643cff8872ae829730c3f6e42f3fa10b0220db2d69552b42f; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:44:55.369Z.