RwandAir Flight 205
JetLink Express on behalf of RwandAir Bombardier CRJ100ER · Ground collision with terminal
From Kigali International Airport (KGL) to Entebbe International Airport (EBB)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's fatalities. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA10RA011
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground Narrative disagrees
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 15
- Survivors
- 14
- 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
- 10
- 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 CRJ100ER
- Flight
- WB205
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier CRJ100
- 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
- 5Y-JLD
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Kigali International Airport (KGL)To Entebbe International Airport (EBB)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
RwandAir Flight 205 was a Canadair CRJ100ER that crashed into the Terminal Building of Kigali International Airport on 12 November 2009 after an emergency landing at Kigali, Rwanda killing one passenger. The flight was operated by JetLink Express on behalf of RwandAir. In the aftermath of the accident, RwandAir suspended all operations with JetLink Express.
Accident
The flight took off from Kigali International Airport, shortly after which the pilots informed air traffic control that the left thrust lever had become jammed at the Takeoff Power setting. The pilots did not utilize the Thrust Lever Jammed Abnormal Checklist Procedure and instead immediately returned to the airport with the right thrust lever (which was adjustable) at idle, landing shortly after 11:30 a.m. The aircraft stopped short of the VIP Terminal Building but lurched forward as the chocks were being put in place; the aircraft then crashed into the VIP terminal. A fire followed the accident but was put out. The co-pilot was eventually freed from the wreckage three hours after the crash. Of the ten passengers and five crew, all survived the initial crash with injuries to ten people on the aircraft and in the VIP terminal. One female passenger died shortly after arriving at a hospital.
A RwandAir spokesperson said, "He landed safely on the runway and was guided by the marshals into the parking area. For some unexplained reason, the plane, from the parking spot, took off again at full power and... took a right turn, unexplained, into the technical building." The METAR in force at the time of the accident was HRYR 121030Z VRB03KT 9999 BKN030 24/18 Q1018 NOSIG=.
Text from the Wikipedia article “RwandAir Flight 205” (revision 1360790297, 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
On November 12, 2009, at approximately 1115 UTC, a Rwandair Canadian Regional Jet 600 impacted a building after returning to Kigali International Airport after the pilots reported a technical problem. Rwandair flight WB 205 had departed Kigali, Rwanda, enroute to Entebbe, Uganda, at 1054 but requested a return. The airplane landed on its second attempt and taxiied to a parking area but then began taxiing away at high speed and veered to the right until impacting the control tower building. There were 10 passengers and 5 crew members on board (two pilots, two cabin crew, and an engineer), and one passenger was fatally injured.
The investigation is being conducted by the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: RwandAir Flight 205
- Article
- RwandAir Flight 205
- Revision
- 1360790297 · 2026-06-23 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4016243
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA10RA011
- Event ID
- 20091118X60710
- Case number
- DCA10RA011
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "RwandAir Flight 205" (page 25070392, revision 1360790297); merged with NTSB case DCA10RA011 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- 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 DCA10RA011
- 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 "RwandAir Flight 205" and NTSB case DCA10RA011, 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.