Martinair Flight 495
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF · Crashed on hard landing due to windshear and foggy weather
From Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to Faro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA93RA011
- 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
- 56 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 340
- Survivors
- 284
- 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
- 106
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30CF
- Flight
- MP495
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- 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
- PH-MBN
- Operator
- Martinair
- Onboard fatalities
- 56
- Route
- From Amsterdam Schiphol AirportTo Faro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- 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
Martinair Flight 495 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 operated by Dutch airline Martinair that crash-landed in severe weather conditions at Faro Airport, Portugal on 21 December 1992. The aircraft carried 13 crew members and 327 passengers, mainly holidaymakers from the Netherlands. The crash killed 54 passengers and 2 crew members; 106 of the other occupants were badly injured.
Crash
A large thunderstorm had developed near Faro airport, accompanied by heavy rain, windshear and low cloud. The control tower informed the crew of the thunderstorm activity, in addition to stating that there was water on the runway. Following one unsuccessful landing attempt, the crew attempted a VOR/DME procedure approach to runway 11 (later runway 10), during which the aircraft flew through at least two microbursts. According to the Portuguese final accident report, firefighters saw an explosion coming from the aircraft 22 seconds before it crashed.
The aircraft made a hard landing with a vertical speed exceeding the manufacturer's design limits. Following this, the starboard main gear collapsed, the starboard wing separated from the fuselage and the starboard fuel tank ruptured and the contents ignited. The DC-10 fuselage split in two, coming to rest with the front section lying on its side.
Investigation and cause
Causes
Opinions differ as to the cause(s) of this disaster.
Official investigation by Portuguese aviation authorities
According to the Portuguese aviation authority (DGAC), the cause(s) were likely to have been:
high sink rate in the last phase of the landing approach;
hard landing on the right landing gear, exceeding its structural limitations;
transverse wind during the final approach and landing that exceeded the design limits of the landing gear, given the flooded condition of the runway;
The DGAC describes the following additional factors:
instability of the landing approach;
pilots' reducing throttle too early and allowing the aircraft to lose altitude in an unsafe manner;
airport providing incorrect wind information for the approach;
absence of an approach lighting system;
incorrect assessment of the condition of the runway by the crew;
overriding of the autopilot just before the landing, whereby the aircraft was flown manually in a critical phase of the landing;
delay by the crew to increase altitude;
decrease of the aircraft's lift coefficient due to heavy rainfall.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Martinair Flight 495” (revision 1368263712, 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: Martinair Flight 495
- Article
- Martinair Flight 495
- Revision
- 1368263712 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q3153850
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA93RA011
- Event ID
- 20001211X16146
- Case number
- DCA93RA011
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Martinair Flight 495" (page 4545690, revision 1368263712); merged with NTSB case DCA93RA011 (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 DCA93RA011
- 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 "Martinair Flight 495" and NTSB case DCA93RA011, matched by the same aircraft maker and place 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.