Trans International Airlines Flight 863
Douglas DC-8F · Right elevator jammed by foreign object; further aggravated by pilot error, resulting in loss of pitch control
From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
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
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 11 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 11
- Survivors
- 0
- 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
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
Douglas DC-8F
- Flight
- TV863
- Aircraft type
- 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
- N4863T
- Operator
- Trans International Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)To Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Airframe › Elevator assembly, attachments
- Miscellaneous acts, conditions › Interference with flight controls
- Miscellaneous acts, conditions › Jammed
- Miscellaneous › Foreign material affecting normal operations
- Pilot in command › Failed to abort takeoff
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Trans International Airlines Flight 863 was a ferry flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Washington Dulles International Airport. On September 8, 1970, the Douglas DC-8 (registration N4863T) crashed during take-off from JFK's runway 13R. None of the 11 occupants, who were all crew members, survived.
The probable cause of the accident was an asphalt-covered object lodged in between the right elevator and the right horizontal stabilizer, that jammed the elevator and caused the loss of pitch control.
Accident
At 16:04 (EST), the aircraft was cleared to take off from JFK Airport runway 13R. The take-off roll commenced one minute later. The rotation occurred extremely early, at very slow speed only 1,550 ft down the runway. Due to the slow rotation, a tailstrike occurred and the tail skidded on the runway for 1,250 ft. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recorded the sound of the tailstrike.
At 16:05:35, Captain May said, "let's take it off," with First Officer Loeffler replying, "can't control this thing, Ron." The aircraft became airborne at 2,800 ft down the runway. About 2 seconds after takeoff, the stick-shaker activated, warning the flight crew that the aircraft was in danger of stalling. The aircraft pitched 60–90° nose-up, rising only 300-500 ft above the ground. The aircraft then rolled 20° to the right, then sharply to the left, and stalled in a nose-down position. The aircraft crashed into the ground at 16:05:52. The aircraft exploded and burst into flames on impact, killing the crew.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated the crash. The accident was labeled as "nonsurvivable." While examining the wreckage, investigators discovered a foreign object lodged in between the right elevator and the right horizontal stabilizer. The NTSB determined that this jammed the elevator and caused the loss of pitch control, but could not determine how the object got lodged in between the two surfaces, though one scenario stated that the object was blown in by wake turbulence from the aircraft that took off before Flight 863.
The NTSB published its final report on August 18, 1971, with the "probable cause" section stating:
The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was a loss of pitch control caused by the entrapment of a pointed, asphalt-covered object between the leading edge of the right elevator and the right horizontal spar web access door in the aft part of the stabilizer. The restriction to elevator movement, caused by a highly unusual and unknown condition, was not detected by the crew in time to reject the take off successfully; however, an apparent lack of crew responsiveness to a highly unusual emergency situation, coupled with the captain's failure to monitor adequately the take off, contributed to the failure to reject the take off.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Trans International Airlines Flight 863” (revision 1344602011, 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 remarks
LOSS OF PITCH CTL BY ENTRAPMENT OF POINTED ASPHALT COVERED OBJECT BETW R ELEV AND R HORIZ STAB.
NTSB's remark from its 1962–1981 archive, as recorded (abbreviated, at most 98 characters): the archive has no narrative
Sources
Wikipedia article: Trans International Airlines Flight 863
- Revision
- 1344602011 · 2026-03-21 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q65120393
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record
- Event ID
- 19700908P033588
- Case number
- Unknown
- Dataset
- historical-pre1982
- Source SHA-256
- abe1a933b4b73583d61684309f7f0610c281e3c1de3537c6471bf2a98ba6481d
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Trans International Airlines Flight 863" (page 59888206, revision 1344602011); merged with NTSB case NTSB19700908P033588 (PRE1982 tblFirstHalf (one row per aircraft, grouped by date, place and time))
- Date
- NTSB record NTSB19700908P033588: PRE1982 DATE_OCCURRENCE
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record NTSB19700908P033588
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record NTSB19700908P033588: PRE1982 REGIST_NO, ACFT_MAKE, ACFT_MODEL; gaps from 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
- NTSB record NTSB19700908P033588: PRE1982 TOTAL_ABRD_FATAL of each aircraft, plus people on the ground and others outside the aircraft
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19700908P033588: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Trans International Airlines Flight 863" and NTSB case NTSB19700908P033588, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- From NTSB's 1962-1981 archive (PRE1982), which holds at most a short remark (98 characters, abbreviated) instead of a narrative; the accident type, phase of flight, causes and conditions are NTSB's codes, decoded as the archive defines them.
- Reviewed means this record passed the site's consistency check, not that it was checked against a narrative or report - there is none to check against.
- The operation category is mapped from the archive's operator and operation codes and has not been reviewed.