USAir McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 incident
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 · Incident during landing
From Nashville, TN to Erie International Tom Ridge Field (ERI)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA85IA001
- 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-9-30
- 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
- N965VJ
- Operator
- USAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nashville, TNTo Erie International Tom Ridge Field (ERI)
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Missed approach, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ORIG DESTN WAS YOUNGSTOWN, OH, BUT ITS WX WAS BLO MINS, SO THE FLT TO TRANSPORT A FOOTBALL TEAM WAS PLANNED TO ERIE WHICH WAS SLIGHTLY ABOVE MINS. THE COACH & BUSINESS MANAGER WERE NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS, BUT PLANS WERE MADE TO BUS THE TEAM ON TO YOUNGSTOWN. EN ROUTE, THE MANAGER OCCUPIED A JUMPSEAT IN THE COCKPIT IN VIOLATION OF 14 CFR 121. THE WX AT ERIE DETERIORATED TO 100' OBSCD & 1/4 MI VIS WITH FOG. THE CREW ENTERED HOLDING WITHOUT CLNC TO WAIT FOR THE WX TO IMPROVE. THEY ELECTED TO MAKE AN ILS APCH (MINS 200' CIG & 1/2 MI VIS) & LEFT THE HOLDING PATTERN WITHOUT CLNC. AT APRX 2800', RADAR CONTACT WITH ATC WAS LOST, BUT THEY RECEIVED AN ABOVE MINS WX REPORT FM THE STATION AGENT & CONTD THE APCH WITHOUT AN ATC CLNC. THEY DID NOT ACTIVATE THE APCH LGTS. AT THE DH, THE COPLT SAID 'I DON'T HAVE IT', BUT THE CAPT SAW LGTS TO HIS LEFT & CONTD THE LANDING. THE ACFT LANDED ON SOFT GND BESIDE THE RWY & ROLLED TO A STOP WITH MINOR DMG. RWY LGTS AT STEP 1 INSTEAD OF 2 DUE TO A WIRING PRBLM. CAPT WAS ON DUTY APRX 15 HRS, AWAKE 19.5 HRS. 2 EMERG SLIDES MALF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA85IA001
- Event ID
- 20001214X41327
- Case number
- DCA85IA001
- 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: ed2718603ca18d002e0e6a81a6fccfd38a62c393a090687fae333efd74c20805; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:36:09.126Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N965VJ; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, USAA.