TAESA Flight 725
TAESA Lineas Aéreas McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 · Pilot error and spatial disorientation resulting in a deep stall and loss of control
From General Abelardo L. Rodriguez International Airport (TIJ) to Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW00RA029
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 18 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 18
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31
- Flight
- GD725
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-9
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- XA-TKN
- Operator
- TAESA Lineas Aéreas
- Onboard fatalities
- 18
- Route
- From General Abelardo L. Rodriguez International Airport (TIJ)To Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)
- 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
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Psychological
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
TAESA Flight 725 was a scheduled flight originating in Tijuana International Airport and ending at Mexico City International Airport with intermediate stopovers in Guadalajara and Uruapan, that crashed shortly after departure from the latter city's airport on November 9, 1999, killing all 18 passengers and crew on board. The crash led TAESA to ground its fleet and suspend operations a year later in 2000.
Flight
The aircraft departed Uruapan for Mexico City at 18:59 local time. After rotation, the aircraft pitched up abnormally high, entered a stall, nosed over and crashed into an avocado field 3.3 mi south of the runway on a heading of 110 degrees. All 18 people on board were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
Investigators determined that the crew did not use the appropriate checklists prior to departure, and during the climbout, the pilots were confused about which heading to follow. Spatial disorientation was also believed to be a factor in the crash.
Text from the Wikipedia article “TAESA Flight 725” (revision 1339313608, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: TAESA Flight 725
- Article
- TAESA Flight 725
- Revision
- 1339313608 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7669220
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record FTW00RA029
- Event ID
- 20001212X20108
- Case number
- FTW00RA029
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "TAESA Flight 725" (page 1159318, revision 1339313608); merged with NTSB case FTW00RA029 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record FTW00RA029
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "TAESA Flight 725" and NTSB case FTW00RA029, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date. Values present in the bulk record are kept.