American International Airways Flight 808
McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61(F) · Stalled during steep bank due to pilot error caused by fatigue and a failed go-around attempt
From Norfolk Naval Station (Chambers Field) (NGU) to Leeward Point Field (NBW)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA93RA060
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 3
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61(F)
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-8
- Category
- Airplane
- 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
- N814CK
- Operator
- American International Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Norfolk Naval Station (Chambers Field) (NGU)To Leeward Point Field (NBW)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Loss of control in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall/mush
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fatigue
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
American International Airways Flight 808 was a cargo flight operated by an American International Airways (now Kalitta Air) Douglas DC-8 that crashed on 18 August 1993, while attempting to land at Leeward Point Field at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. All three crew members on board survived with serious injuries.
Accident
The flight took off from Norfolk at 14:13 EST. It was transporting mail and perishable food to the Guántanamo Bay Naval Base as per AIA's contract with the US Navy. The flight was uneventful up to and during the arrival into Guantánamo Bay's terminal control area. The crew first made radio contact with air traffic control at 16:34. The controller reported instructions for approaching the airport and also stated that the runway in use would be Runway 10. The crew requested for this to be changed to Runway 28, which the controller accepted and followed up on by issuing further landing instructions. However, at 16:42, the crew requested for the runway to be switched back to 10 again, which the controller also granted.
The plane had begun the turn too late, requiring it to make a steeper bank to align with the runway. A pilot of a Lockheed C-130 on the airport ramp stated "It looked to me as if he was turning to final rather late so it surprised me to see him at 30 to 40 degrees AOB [Angle of Bank] trying to make final. At 400 ft above ground level, he increased AOB to at least 60 degrees in an effort to make the runway and still overshooting." At 200 - 300 ft above ground level, the right wing stalled. The nose pitched down as the wings rolled toward 90 degrees and at 16:56, the aircraft struck level terrain 1,400 ft from the end of the runway. The plane was destroyed by the impact and post-crash fire and none of its cargo was salvaged. The cockpit had separated on impact from the main wreckage and tumbled across the ground, coming to rest inverted with all 3 crew members alive inside, albeit with serious injuries. Firefighting efforts commenced within minutes, focusing first on the spot fires around the cockpit then the 35 acre fuel/brush fire which followed. Special permission was granted for a medical aircraft to overfly Cuban airspace to save time transporting the crew to hospital.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the accident. The cockpit voice recorder revealed that the flight crew had decided to land on Runway 10 "...for the heck of it to see how it is..." and planned to go-around and land on Runway 28 if they missed. During the approach to Runway 10, the air traffic controller told the crew to remain within the airspace designated by a strobe light mounted on the Cuban border fence. Unknown to the controller, this strobe light was inoperative on the day of the accident. Captain Chapo became fixated on trying to locate the strobe light, which led him to begin the turn too late and failed to maintain his airspeed during the steep turn despite warnings from his other crew members.
Having been on duty since midnight, Captain Chapo had been awake for 23.5 hours, First Officer Curran for 19 hours and Flight Engineer Richmond for 21 hours at the time of the accident. A look back at the crew members' sleep patterns in the 72 hours before the accident revealed that all 3 had accumulated a large sleep debt from working over long shifts. In the three days before the accident, Captain Chapo slept for a total of 15 hours, First Officer Curran for 18 hours and Flight Engineer Richmond for 21.5 hours. Most of the crew's shifts were done at night, requiring them to attempt to sleep in the day, which disrupted their circadian rhythm. This aggravated the effects of fatigue on the crew, with Captain Chapo, in particular, observed suffering from various symptoms, including impaired judgment with his decision to land on Runway 10, his cognitive fixation on trying to locate the strobe light, the poor communication with his crew about their decreasing airspeed and his slow reaction time in avoiding and recovering from the stall.
The investigation into the accident also revealed that the crew, already fatigued from a large amount of sleep debt and an extensive shift, did not have to accept the additional flights to Norfolk, Virginia and Guantánamo Bay, but did anyway for fear of losing their jobs. This discovery brought attention to the fact that toxic work environments can have dangerous consequences.
The NTSB determined the probable causes to be:
Text from the Wikipedia article “American International Airways Flight 808” (revision 1374351939, 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: American International Airways Flight 808
- Revision
- 1374351939 · 2026-09-11 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q56308427
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA93RA060
- Event ID
- 20001211X13127
- Case number
- DCA93RA060
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "American International Airways Flight 808" (page 59817761, revision 1374351939); merged with NTSB case DCA93RA060 (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 DCA93RA060
- 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 (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "American International Airways Flight 808" and NTSB case DCA93RA060, 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.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N814CK; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.