Flying Tiger Line Flight 066
Boeing 747-249F-SCD · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) to Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon, British Hong Kong
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA89RA025
- 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
- 4 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 4
- 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
Boeing 747-249F-SCD
- Flight
- FT066
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747
- 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
- N807FT
- Operator
- Flying Tiger Line
- Onboard fatalities
- 4
- Route
- From Singapore Changi Airport (SIN)To Kai Tak Airport, Kowloon, British Hong Kong
- 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
- 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
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
- Personnel issues › Psychological
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Flying Tiger Line Flight 066 was a scheduled international cargo flight from Changi Airport to Kai Tak Airport via a stopover at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. On 19 February 1989, the FedEx-owned Boeing 747-249F-SCD crashed while on its final approach. The aircraft impacted a hillside 437 ft above sea level and 12 km from Kuala Lumpur, resulting in all four occupants being killed.
Accident
The aircraft was assigned a non-directional beacon (NDB) approach to Runway 33 at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Kuala Lumpur, after having flown 30 minutes from Singapore Changi Airport. In descent, the flight was cleared to "Kayell" with a Morse code of "KL" of which four separate points on the ground were commonly called by Malaysian ATC, albeit with different frequencies. Two separate radio beacons were identically coded "KL", as well as the VOR abbreviation (Kuala Lumpur shortened to "KL") and the airport was also sometimes referred to as "KL" by local ATC (instead of the full "Kuala Lumpur"). The crew was unsure to which point they were cleared, and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) revealed that the crew argued about which radios should be set to which frequencies and which approach was actually going to be conducted. (Even in the last few moments of the flight, the captain referenced the ILS approach for runway 33, which was named as inoperable on the flight release and the ATIS; additionally the crew was told by ATC that the ILS approach was not available.)
Air traffic control (ATC) radioed to the flight, "Tiger 66, descend two four zero zero (about 2,400 ft), cleared for NDB approach runway 33." Captain Halpin, who interpreted it as "descend to four zero zero" replied with, "Okay, four zero zero" (meaning 400 ft) above sea level, which was 2,000 ft too low). The CVR also revealed several communication errors made by the flight crew prior to this miscommunication and a general casual nature of the captain, who was the pilot-not-flying on this particular leg of the trip.
During the final approach, numerous clear warnings were given by the on-board ground proximity warning system, which were all ignored entirely by the crew, and the aircraft hit a hillside 437 ft above sea level, killing all four crew on board—two pilots, a flight engineer, and an aircraft mechanic. The subsequent fire burned for two days.
Investigation and cause
Causes
The first officer (FO) had complained that he did not have an approach plate in front of him and had not seen the approach.
Additionally, the FO, who was the pilot flying at the time, expressed concern about conducting the NDB approach and indicated a preference for the ILS for runway 15. The FO was not assertive, though, and no further action was taken. The captain dismissed his concern, saying he was familiar with the airport and the approaches.
A contributing factor to this accident was the non-ICAO phraseology used by Kuala Lumpur ATC and the captain of the aircraft. This breakdown of communication contributed to the crew misinterpreting the instructions given. This particular controlled-flight-into-terrain accident, however, ultimately resulted from a crew failure to adhere to the instrument approach procedure, poor crew resource management, and poor situational awareness.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Flying Tiger Line Flight 066” (revision 1359575772, 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: Flying Tiger Line Flight 066
- Article
- Flying Tiger Line Flight 066
- Revision
- 1359575772 · 2026-06-16 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5463543
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA89RA025
- Event ID
- 20001213X27707
- Case number
- DCA89RA025
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Flying Tiger Line Flight 066" (page 23024627, revision 1359575772); merged with NTSB case DCA89RA025 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- 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 DCA89RA025
- 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 "Flying Tiger Line Flight 066" and NTSB case DCA89RA025, 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.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.