China Eastern Airlines Flight 583
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 · In-flight upset due to accidental deployment of slats caused by design flaw in flap/slat handle
From Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA93MA037
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 255
- Survivors
- 253
- 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
- 156
- 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 MD-11
- Flight
- MU583
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- 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
- B2171
- Operator
- China Eastern Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)To Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, 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 129: Foreign
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Flt control syst, wing flap control › Inadequate
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate design
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article, given only to the whole degree (up to about 70 km off); not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 was a commercial passenger flight from Beijing, China, to Los Angeles, United States, with a stopover in Shanghai, China, operated by China Eastern Airlines. On April 6, 1993, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 operating the Shanghai to Los Angeles sector experienced an in-flight upset due to a flight crew member inadvertently deploying the slats of the aircraft while the plane was cruising near the Aleutian Islands. The accident resulted in the death of two passengers and 156 injuries.
Accident
On April 6, 1993, the McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 operating the service was cruising above the Pacific Ocean near the Aleutian Islands at 296 knots. About 20 minutes after the relief crew took over, the aircraft was making a slow left turn when one of the relief crew members (likely the captain), while attempting to fix a speed indicator issue, accidentally deployed the slats. While attempting to correct the pitch up caused by the slat deployment, the crew caused the plane to enter severe oscillations after repeatedly over-correcting. After losing about 5,000 feet of altitude, the aircraft stabilized and eventually made an emergency landing at Shemya Air Force Base in Shemya, Semichi Islands, Alaska.
Of the 255 passengers and crew, 60 were hospitalized, of whom 2 died. Of the cockpit crew, five received no injuries and three received serious injuries. Of the flight attendants, eight received no injuries and four received serious injuries. Of the surviving passengers, 84 received no injuries, 96 received minor injuries, and 53 received serious injuries. By April 24, 1993, all but three of the surviving passengers were discharged from the hospital.
An individual who translated for some of the Chinese passengers who were cared for in Alaska stated that, at the time, many Chinese people were not accustomed to flying and did not have a habit of keeping seat belts on in-flight.
Chinese speakers in Anchorage, Alaska volunteered to provide interpretation and emotional support for passengers with low English fluency.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board report found that the handle used to actuate the leading-edge flaps/slats was poorly designed, and the captain likely moved this handle unintentionally while performing an unrelated task. This unexpected slats deployment caused the nose to pitch up. The pilot returned the handle to the correct position and, in an effort to correct the plane's pitch, pushed the control column forward with enough force to trigger the autopilot to disengage, thus causing an abrupt nose-down elevator movement. The plane continued to oscillate between nose-up and nose-down pitch due to the pilot's over-correction of the elevator inputs until they were able to stabilize the plane's attitude. The violent pitching movement caused injuries to the occupants. At the time of the accident, passengers were either not wearing seat belts or had them loose, or were standing in the aisle, exacerbating the number and extent of injuries.
Other contributing factors included the lack of pilot training in high-altitude upset recovery, the light control force characteristics at cruising altitude, and the influence of the stall warning system engaging and disengaging during the oscillations on the pilot's control inputs.
Text from the Wikipedia article “China Eastern Airlines Flight 583” (revision 1369531989, 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
NTSB narrative
FLIGHT 583 WAS LEVEL AT 33,000 FEET WHEN THE LEADING EDGE SLATS DEPLOYED INADVERTENTLY. THE AUTOPILOT DISCONNECTED AND THE CAPTAIN WAS MANUALLY CONTROLLING THE AIRPLANE WHEN IT PROGRESSED THROUGH SEVERAL VIOLENT PITCH OSCILLATIONS AND LOST 5,000 FEET. THE SAFETY BOARD DETERMINED THAT THE INADVERTENT DEPLOYMENT OF THE SLATS WAS THE RESULT OD AN INADEQUATELY DESIGNED FLAP/SLAT HANDLE THAT ALLOWED THE HANDLED TO BE EASILY AND INADVERTENLY DISLODGED FROM THE UP/RET POSITION, THEREBY CAUSING SLAT EXTENSION.
Probable cause
THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD DETERMINES THAT THE PROBABLE CAUSE OF THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE INADEQUATE DESIGN OF THE FLAP/SLAT ACTUATION HANDLE BY THE DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT COMPANY THAT ALLOWED THE HANDLE TO BE EASILY AND INADVERTENTLY DISLODGED FROM THE UP/RET POSITION, THEREBY CAUSING EXTENSION OF THE LEADING EDGE SLATS DURING CRUISE FLIGHT. THE CAPTAIN'S ATTEMPT TO RECOVER FROM THE SLAT EXTENSION, GIVEN THE REDUCED LONGITUDINAL STABILITY AND THE ASSOCIATED LIGHT CONTROL FORCE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MD-11 IN CRUISE FLIGHT, LED TO SEVERAL VIOLENT PITCH OSCILLATIONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE VIOLENCE OF THE PITCH OSCILLATIONS WAS THE LACK OF SPECIFIC MD-11 PILOT TRAINING IN RECOVERY FROM HIGH ALTITUDE UPSETS, AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE STALL WARNING SYSTEM ON THE CAPTAIN'S CONTROL RESPONSES. CONTRIBUTING TO THE SEVERITY OF THE INJURIES WAS THE LACK OF SEAT RESTRAINT USAGE BY THE OCCUPANTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: China Eastern Airlines Flight 583
- Revision
- 1369531989 · 2026-08-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5099664
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA93MA037
- Event ID
- 20001211X12107
- Case number
- DCA93MA037
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "China Eastern Airlines Flight 583" (page 19167932, revision 1369531989); merged with NTSB case DCA93MA037 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record DCA93MA037: NTSB API eventDate, eventTimeUtc and eventTimeUtcOffsetHours (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record DCA93MA037
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates (whole degrees)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record DCA93MA037: aircraft; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record DCA93MA037: operated under Part 129: Foreign
- Fatalities
- NTSB record DCA93MA037: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record DCA93MA037: NTSB API ongroundFatal
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "China Eastern Airlines Flight 583" and NTSB case DCA93MA037, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB'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: 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.