China Northern Airlines Flight 6901
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 · Pilot error (Controlled flight into terrain)
From Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) to Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport, Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 12 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 102
- Survivors
- 90
- 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
- 60
- 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
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- Flight
- CJ6901
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- 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
- B-2141
- Operator
- China Northern Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 12
- Route
- From Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)To Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport, Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
China Northern Airlines Flight 6901 (CJ6901) was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 airliner from Beijing's Capital International Airport to Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport in Xinjiang, China. On November 13, 1993, it crashed on approach to Ürümqi Airport. Twelve of the 102 passengers and crew on board were killed. The accident has been attributed to pilot error.
Accident
While on final approach, the autopilot automatically disconnected. The Captain proceeded to reengage it, believing that it would still be in approach mode. When activated, however, the autopilot went into vertical speed mode with a setting of -800 feet per minute. The crew's failure to disconnect the autopilot and manually land the airplane contributed to the accident. Another factor was the crew's lack of proficiency in English. When the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) issued an aural alarm, the captain asked his first officer what the words "Pull up" meant. The first officer replied that he did not know. Consequently, the pilots ignored the warnings and failed to correct their excessive rate of descent, causing the plane to strike power lines and a wall before coming down in a field.
Text from the Wikipedia article “China Northern Airlines Flight 6901” (revision 1353335836, 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: China Northern Airlines Flight 6901
- Revision
- 1353335836 · 2026-05-09 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q5099822
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "China Northern Airlines Flight 6901" (page 3730785, revision 1353335836)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- 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)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.