Edinburgh Air Charter Flight 3W
Cessna 404 Titan · Engine failure on takeoff, pilot error
From Glasgow Airport (GLA) to Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD99RA065
- 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
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 3
- 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
- 3
- 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
Cessna 404 Titan
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 404
- 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
- G-ILGW
- Operator
- Edinburgh Air Charter
- Onboard fatalities
- 8
- Route
- From Glasgow Airport (GLA)To Aberdeen International Airport (ABZ)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
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
Edinburgh Air Charter Flight 3W was a charter flight from Glasgow to Aberdeen. On 3 September 1999, an engine failed during takeoff at Glasgow. The aircraft then crashed short of the runway, killing 8 of the 11 people on board. The Cessna 404 Titan was chartered by Edinburgh Air Charter but operating with Airtours and carrying Airtours employees. Later they would board an actual Airtours Boeing 757 for Palma de Mallorca.
Accident
Shortly after takeoff, the left engine failed and the pilot-in-command feathered the right engine. Instead of attempting a crash landing, the pilot attempted to return to Glasgow Airport without engine power and lost control while trying to make a right turn. The aircraft crashed and caught fire approximately one nautical mile from the airport. The two Edinburgh Air Charter pilots, the Airtours First Officer, and five Airtours flight attendants died in the crash. The Airtours captain and two flight attendants survived.
Investigation and cause
Investigation and aftermath
The aircraft was slightly overweight for the conditions. A report recommended engine inspections, more crash-worthy seats, and consideration to fitting aircraft like this with CVRs. As a result of this accident an airworthiness directive was issued by the British Civil Aviation Authority in June 2000, requiring inspections of the starter adapters and crankshaft gears on Continental GTSIO-520 series engines.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Edinburgh Air Charter Flight 3W” (revision 1362859072, 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: Edinburgh Air Charter Flight 3W
- Revision
- 1362859072 · 2026-07-06 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q19574747
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record IAD99RA065
- Event ID
- 20001212X19786
- Case number
- IAD99RA065
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Edinburgh Air Charter Flight 3W" (page 44901236, revision 1362859072); merged with NTSB case IAD99RA065 (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 IAD99RA065
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- 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 "Edinburgh Air Charter Flight 3W" and NTSB case IAD99RA065, 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.