United Airlines McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-10 accident
McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-10 · Accident: overrun during takeoff
From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA82AA014
- 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-10-10
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- 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
- N1814U
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, PATo Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), LOS ANGLES, CA
- 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
- Overrun
- 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 › Abort above v1, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCREWS OF A UNITED DC-10 (FLT 99 HEAVY) AND TWO U.S. AIR DC-9'S (FLT 25 AND FLT 199) TAXIED FOR TAKEOFF AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME. DUE TO DELAYS, THE NO. 2 ENGINE OF FLT 199 WAS SHUT DOWN IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE FUEL CONSERVATION PROCEDURES. AFTER FLT 99 WAS CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF, THE AIRCREW OF FLT 199 STARTED THEIR ENGINE, BUT IT TORCHED AND EMITTED FLAMES FROM THE TAIL CONE. THE CAPTAIN OF FLT 25 SAW THE FLAMES AND TRANSMITTED ON TOWER FREQUENCY, "99, YOU'RE RIGHT ENGINE'S ON FIRE." AT ABOUT THAT TIME, UNITED FLT 99 HEAVY WAS LIFTING OFF. THINKING HE HAD AN ENGINE FIRE, THE CAPTAIN OF UNITED FLT 99 HEAVY ABORTED ABOVE V1/VR RATHER THAN CONTINUING INTO A LOW CEILING WITH FOG AND RAIN. THE CAPTAIN THOUGHT HE COULD STOP ON THE HARD SURFACE, BUT WAS UNABLE. THE PLANE CAME TO REST ON MUDDY TERRAIN. ONE PASSENGER WAS INJURED DURING EVACUATION. DURING THIS SEQUENCE, THE TOWER CONTROLLER WAS UNABLE TO SEE THE RUNWAY DUETO THE LOW VISIBILITY (3/8 MI).
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA82AA014
- Event ID
- 20020917X01910
- Case number
- DCA82AA014
- 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: 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: c40d73a3af6dd53e180692251b9b932f0a8a23c79c48f1f6a7a3a52840dccf16; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:12:34.975Z.