Comair Flight 444
Piper PA-31 · Engine failure and Pilot error leading to crash
From Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) to Nashville, TN
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
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 8
- 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
Piper PA-31
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N6642L
- Operator
- Comair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)To Nashville, TN
- 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 (scheduled domestic passenger service)
- 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
- Engine failure or malfunction
- 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
- Miscellaneous acts, conditions › Improper emergency procedures
- Pilot in command › Failed to follow approved procedures, directives, etc.
- Powerplant › Powerplant failure for undetermined reasons
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Covington, KY, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
Comair Flight 444 was a chartered domestic passenger flight operated by Comair, which crashed shortly after takeoff from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on October 8, 1979. The flight was en route to Dayton, Ohio. All eight were killed due the accident.
The NTSB concluded that the crash was resulted from a loss of control caused by a partial loss of power from one engine during takeoff. The NTSB recommended increased scrutiny of pilot training programs and weight-and-balance enforcement for small commuter flights.
Accident
The aircraft, a twin-engine Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, took off from Runway 27 at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) in the early evening.
After approximately 1,500 to 2,000 feet of takeoff roll, the aircraft lifted off abruptly and began a shallow climb, reaching an altitude of about 150 feet above the runway. Shortly after liftoff, the pilot reported an engine power loss, and the tower controller cleared the aircraft to return for landing. Within seconds, the aircraft rolled sharply to the right, inverted, and entered a nose-down descent before impacting the ground. Witnesses stated that the aircraft appeared to struggle to gain altitude and banked erratically before crashing in an open field approximately 9000 ft from the runway.
The aircraft was completely destroyed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the crash was a partial loss of power from one engine during the initial climb, followed by a loss of control due to improper response by the pilot. The NTSB found several contributing factors:
The aircraft was overloaded by approximately 195 pounds beyond its maximum allowable takeoff weight.
The pilot failed to retract the landing gear and flaps, contributing to increased drag and reduced climb performance.
The pilot did not abort the takeoff when engine performance issues were first observed.
The airline's training, certification, and supervision practices were found to be inadequate.
The accident resulted in three recommendations:
Require that pilots operating under 14 CFR Part 135 receive comprehensive training on aircraft performance and handling characteristics when operating at or near the maximum certificated gross weight and/or at the limits of the center of gravity (CG) envelope.
In collaboration with industry stakeholders, develop flight data recorder (FDR) standards for complex aircraft that reflect their intended operational use.
Initiate the drafting of specifications and provide funding for the research and development of affordable flight data recorders (FDRs), cockpit voice recorders (CVRs), and combined recording systems suitable for complex general aviation aircraft. Establish guidelines for these systems, including a cost ceiling appropriate to the aircraft's price and its intended operational role.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Comair Flight 444” (revision 1362015612, 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
GR,FLAPS DOWN.195LBS OVR MAX GWT.HURRIED DEPARTURE.INEFFECTIVE FAA CERTIFICATION,SURVEILLANCE.
NTSB's remark from its 1962–1981 archive, as recorded (abbreviated, at most 98 characters): the archive has no narrative
Sources
Wikipedia article: Comair Flight 444
- Article
- Comair Flight 444
- Revision
- 1362015612 · 2026-07-01 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q133968513
- 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
- 19791008P075127
- Case number
- Unknown
- Dataset
- historical-pre1982
- Source SHA-256
- abe1a933b4b73583d61684309f7f0610c281e3c1de3537c6471bf2a98ba6481d
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Comair Flight 444" (page 6829786, revision 1362015612); merged with NTSB case NTSB19791008P075127 (PRE1982 tblFirstHalf (one row per aircraft, grouped by date, place and time))
- Date
- NTSB record NTSB19791008P075127: PRE1982 DATE_OCCURRENCE
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record NTSB19791008P075127
- Map position
- NTSB record NTSB19791008P075127: centre of the town the record names (GeoNames, CC BY 4.0)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record NTSB19791008P075127: 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
- NTSB record NTSB19791008P075127: operated under Part 121: Air carrier (scheduled domestic passg.svc)
- Fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19791008P075127: PRE1982 TOTAL_ABRD_FATAL of each aircraft, plus people on the ground and others outside the aircraft
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19791008P075127: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Comair Flight 444" and NTSB case NTSB19791008P075127, 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.