Northwest Airlines Flight 1118
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-41 · Accident: fire while standing
From Indianapolis International Airport (IND) to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA069
- 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
- Unknown
- 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-9-41
- 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
- N754NW
- Operator
- Northwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Indianapolis International Airport (IND), Indianapolis, INTo Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), Detroit, 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 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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
- Fire
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Passenger › Miscellaneous
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A passenger suffered a broken wrist when he fell off the side of the slide during an emergency evacuation. The airplane was positioned near the end of the runway with the engines shut down during an air traffic control delay. After approximately 15 minutes, the flightcrew was informed by ground control that they should start their engines, as they would probably be released for takeoff soon. The captain reported they were unable to start the right engine. They performed the "clearing procedure" and then went on to start the left engine with no problem. They then attempted to start the right engine again. Airport Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) personnel were parked near the airplane reported to air traffic control that there were smoke and flames coming from the right engine. There were no fire warning indications in the cockpit. The flightcrew performed the ENGINE FIRE checklist and subsequently discharged both fire suppressant bottles into the engine. The flightcrew eventually shut down both engines and ARFF requested that the flightcrew begin evacuating the airplane. All of the passengers were directed to the front of the airplane and the evacuation took place using the 1L and 1R doors. A witness reported that the injured passenger stepped out of the airplane onto the slide. The passenger bounced down the slide and went over the side of the slide approximately four to five feet above the ground. The investigation revealed the engine start fuel scheduling for the Fuel Control Unit was high. In addition, the ignition exciter box and igniter plugs were tested. The ignition exciter box was found to operate intermittently on the D.C. circuit which would be used for engine start.
Probable cause
The passenger fell off the side of the slide during the emergency evacuation. Factors were the emergency evacuation and the erratic ignition exciter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA069
- Event ID
- 20020125X00135
- Case number
- CHI02LA069
- 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, damage. 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: 86fb6b25f0c059c19e554859bfb24d92f7d42bfad8e64255736213d531905a93; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:06:26.615Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N754NW; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.