USAir McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 accident
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Hartford, CT to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA84AA028
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-9
- 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
- N964VJ
- Operator
- USAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hartford, CTTo Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)
- 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 final 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Crew/group coordination › Inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING ARRIVAL, THE AIRCREW (VISUALLY & BY USE OF WX RADAR) NOTED THUNDERSTORMS (TSTMS) WEST & SOUTHWEST OF THE ARPT. THE CREW ELECTED TO CONTINUE & MAKE AN ILS APCH. AT 1636, A SPCL WX OBSN HAD TSTM INFO, BUT WAS NOT NOTED. AT 1650, THE VIS DROPPED TO 1/4 MI WITH HVY RAIN & HAIL. AS THE ACFT APCHD RWY 21R, A VIP LVL 4 TSTM MOVED FROM WEST TO EAST OVER THENORTHERN PART OF THE ARPT. THE CONTOLLER PROVIDED WIND INFO FROM THE LOW LVL WIND SHEAR ALERT SYS (LLWAS), BUT USED IMPROPER PHRASEOLOGY & FAILED TO PROVIDE RVR INFO WHEN THE VIS WENT BLO 1 MI. THE CREW HAD DIFFICULTY IN UNDERSTANDING THE LLWAS INFO DUE TO THE AMOUNT & RAPIDITY THAT IT WAS PROVIDED. AT APRX 350' AGL, THE ACFT ENCOUNTERED LOW CLDS, HVY RAIN, HAIL & TURBC. THE AIRCREW INITIATED A MISSED APCH. THE SPEED INCREASED TO 143 KTS, THEN DECREASED TO APRX 119 KTS.THE CAPT BELIEVED THE ACFT WOULD NOT CLIMB & ELECTED TO LAND. THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN ABOUT 2500' DOWN THE RWY WITH THE GEAR PARTIALLY EXTENDED, THEN SLID 3800' & WENT OFF THE RWY. THE WIND WAS GUSTING TO 32 KTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA84AA028
- Event ID
- 20001214X39893
- Case number
- DCA84AA028
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 097446e9625adcc3eeb711681ba8362636aed18886a39048bb08ff96b51856a1; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:40:18.169Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N964VJ; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, USAA.