Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 5563
Bombardier CRJ 200 · Accident: fire/smoke (non-impact) while standing
From Tallahassee International Airport (TLH) to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA09FA033
- 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
- Not recorded
Bombardier CRJ 200
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier CRJ
- 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
- N830AS
- Operator
- Atlantic Southeast Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tallahassee International Airport (TLH), Tallahassee, FLTo Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GA
- 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) not operating
- Defining eventThe 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/smoke (non-impact)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A fire initiated in the top portion of the JB-1 junction box, which contains components associated with the distribution of electrical power from the APU or an external AC power supply. The fire ignited combustible materials, including insulation blankets and spread upwards toward a flexible oxygen line mounted above the JB-1 junction box. The flexible oxygen line ignited when exposed to the fire, and the fire burned through the aircraft's fuselage.
Evidence suggests that the fire initiated as a result of an electrical anomaly in the top portion of the JB-1 junction box, near bus bar and contactor components. This evidence includes melting of one side of the bus bar along the periphery of its connection to a terminal stud and severe thermal damage to the internal and, to a lesser degree, external surfaces of the K1XB contactor case. Despite the damage to the contactor case, the internal contacts did not appear to be stuck or exhibit signs of melting or excessive pitting. There were no other signs of arcing near any of these components.
Numerous maintenance difficulties had occurred on the aircraft involving the external AC power supply system beginning approximately 10-weeks before the accident. To attempt to remedy the anomalies, several relays, electrical contactors, the AC power switch, the external ground power receptacle, and other electrical components were removed and replaced with new components. Several of these components were located in the upper section of the JB-1 junction box. The last of these actions occurred about 5-weeks before the accident.
Probable cause
An electrical anomaly in the top portion of the JB-1 junction box resulting in ignition of adjacent combustible materials, including insulation blankets, and a flexible oxygen line.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA09FA033
- Event ID
- 20090303X74824
- Case number
- DCA09FA033
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates. 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: 058684479916b1802e032b1c2c18869d5ca05dd4f9c99bbbc8a61aa1fdc6c49a; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:47:54.918Z.