Allegiant Air McDonnell Douglas DC 9 83(MD-83) accident
McDonnell Douglas DC 9 83(MD-83) · Accident: evacuation while taxiing
From St. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE) to Hagerstown Regional Richard A Henson Field (HGR)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA15CA129
- 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 83(MD-83)
- 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
- N869GA
- Operator
- Allegiant Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE), St Petersburg, FLTo Hagerstown Regional Richard A Henson Field (HGR), Hagerstown, MD
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Evacuation
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During initial climb after departure from St Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), St. Petersburg, Florida, the flight attendants (FA) notified the flight crew of an odor they described as that of "burning rubber". The flight returned to PIE where two Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) vehicles responded and met the airplane as it stopped on the taxiway after landing.
The captain communicated with ARFF personnel over Air Traffic Control (ATC) ground control frequency. According to statements, the ARFF Lieutenant advised that there was smoke coming from the #1 engine and requested that the crew shut down the engine so they could examine the airplane. The firefighter in ARFF vehicle 3 stated that while the Lieutenant was outside the vehicle examining the airplane, the flight crew reported their intent to evacuate the airplane and the firefighter advised the crew to hold off on the evacuation while he contacted the Lieutenant. According to flight crew statements, the crew asked for verification of this request three times without hearing a response. Flight crew statements indicated the flight deck crew did not communicate with the cabin crew during this time to assess the conditions in the cabin. The crew stated that they believed the delay in receiving response to their radio calls indicated ARFF personnel were busy addressing a safety concern and after hearing no further transmissions, the crew completed the evacuation checklist and advised passengers and cabin crew to proceed with evacuation.
During the evacuation, one passenger sustained a serious injury (fractured wrist) and six passengers and one cabin crew member received minor injuries.
Although ARFF and the flight deck crew established a direct line of communication, they lacked prompt, clear, and concise communication.
Following this event, Allegiant Air implemented a Captain Leadership training program and established joint flight deck and cabin crew resource management training.
Probable cause
evacuation of the aircraft due to reported, but unverified, aircraft condition and poor communication between Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting personnel and the flight crew.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA15CA129
- Event ID
- 20150608X90730
- Case number
- DCA15CA129
- 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, 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: 877947449a766dd0ec4eab0074cef1a2c226dbd669ce54bc20cd1514495345dc; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:24:12.794Z.