DEN85FA002 · Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) HANSA HFB-320 HANSA HFB-
Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) HANSA HFB-320 HANSA HFB- · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From Aberdeen Regional Airport (ABR) to Willow Run Airport (YIP)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85FA002
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) HANSA HFB-320 HANSA HFB-
- Aircraft type
- Hamburger Flugzeugbau (hfb) HANSA HFB-320
- 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
- N127MW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aberdeen Regional Airport (ABR), Aberdeen, SDTo Willow Run Airport (YIP), YIPSILANTE, MI
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Inattentive
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE HANSA JET HFB-320 ACFT CRASHED ON TAKEOFF FROM THE ABERDEEN AIRPORT AFTER THE FLT CREW SELECTED THE INCORRECT RWY FOR TAKEOFF. THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED RUNNING OFF THE END OF RWY 17, WHICH IS 3860 FT LONG, WHERE IT STRUCK A FENCE, DITCH, ROAD & ANOTHER DITCH THEN BECAME AIRBORNE, THE LANDING GEAR SEPARATED DURING THE ABOVE SEQUENCE. THE ACFT WAS THAN OBSERVED TO LEVEL OFF MOMENTARILY, THEN DESCEND IN A RT TURN UNTIL IMPACT. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE CREW HAD BEEN FLYING 12 HRS EXCEPT FOR REFUELING STOPS & CARGO LOADING. IN ADDITION, CALCULATIONS REVEALED THE ACFT WAS OVER GROSS WT BY APPROX 1 TON. THE PROPER RWY FOR TAKEOFF WAS 13 (40 DEGREE CHANCE) AND 6900 FT LONG. RWY USED WAS RESTRICTED TO ACFT LES THAN 12,500 GTO WT. N127MW WEIGHED OVER 20,000 LBS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85FA002
- Event ID
- 20001214X41329
- Case number
- DEN85FA002
- 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 1984-10-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: deb3e057ecfd440b22612c5e67091e54e059c0154ffa9b7c970bea6d31a9f859; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:18:40.226Z.