Air Canada Flight 797
Douglas DC-9-32 · Emergency landing due to in-flight fire, backdraft during evacuation
From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA83AA028
- 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
- Completed
- Event fatalities
- 23 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 46
- Survivors
- 23
- 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
- 16
- 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-9-32
- Flight
- AC797
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-9
- 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
- CFTLU
- Operator
- Air Canada
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Dallas, TXTo Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Fire
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Miscellaneous eqpt/furnishings, lavatories › Fire
- Other crewmember › Safety advisory, conflicting
- Pilot in command › Unsafe/hazardous condition, not understood
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Air Canada Flight 797 was an international passenger flight operating from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Montréal–Dorval International Airport, with an intermediate stop at Toronto International Airport.
On 2 June 1983, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the service developed an in-flight fire in air around the rear lavatory that spread between the outer skin and the inner decor panels, filling the plane with toxic smoke. The spreading fire also burned through crucial electrical cables that disabled most of the instrumentation in the cockpit, forcing the plane to divert to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Ninety seconds after the plane landed and the doors were opened, the heat of the fire and fresh oxygen from the open exit doors created a backdraft, and the plane's interior immediately became engulfed in flames, killing 23 passengers—half of the people on board—who were unable to evacuate the aircraft. One of those killed in the accident was Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers, at the age of 33.
The accident became a watershed for global aviation regulations, which were changed in the aftermath of the accident to make aircraft safer. New requirements to install smoke detectors in lavatories, strip lights marking paths to exit doors, and increased firefighting training and equipment for crew became standard across the industry, while regulations regarding evacuation were also updated. Since the accident, it has become mandatory for aircraft manufacturers to prove their aircraft could be evacuated within 90 seconds of the commencement of an evacuation, and passengers seated in overwing exits are now instructed to assist in an emergency.
Flight and crew
At 16:25 central daylight time (21:25 UTC) on 2 June 1983, Flight 797 took off from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The flight was a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated by Air Canada using a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 (aircraft registration C-FTLU). The flight was scheduled to make a stop at Toronto International Airport, ultimately bound for Montreal's Dorval Airport.
The flight's captain, Donald Cameron (age 51), had been employed by Air Canada since March 1966, and had qualified as a DC-9 captain in November 1974. At the time of the accident, Cameron had approximately 13,000 flight hours, of which 4,939 were in the DC-9. First Officer Claude Ouimet (age 34) had flown for Air Canada since November 1973. He had about 5,650 hours of flight experience, including 2,499 hours in the DC-9, and had qualified as a DC-9 first officer in February 1979.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Because the accident occurred in the United States, it was investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Although the fuselage was nearly destroyed by the intensity of the fire, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) were still in good condition and produced vital data for the NTSB investigation. On the CVR, NTSB investigators heard eight sounds of electrical arcing beginning at 18:48. The arcing sounds repeated each time that the crew tried to reset the lavatory circuit breakers. Both pilots testified that they did not hear any arcing, and the NTSB concluded that these sounds would be inaudible to the flight crew. Although a number of wires in the lavatory section were later found with insulation stripped away, NTSB investigators were unable to determine whether this insulation damage was the cause of the fire or was caused by the fire.
This particular DC-9 had experienced a number of problems over the months leading up to the incident; 76 maintenance reports had been filed in the plane's logs in the previous year, and the CVR recorded Captain Cameron telling First Officer Ouimet to "put [the tripping breakers] in the book there" when the breakers failed to respond to the first reset attempt at 18:52. Cameron attempted once more to reset the breakers at 18:59. The CVR recorded arcing sounds followed by the popping sound of the breakers continuing to trip again after each reset over the next 60 seconds.
On 17 September 1979, the plane, then serving as Air Canada Flight 680 from Boston, Massachusetts, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, had suffered an explosive decompression in the rear bulkhead that required rebuilding the tail section and replacing or splicing most of the wiring and hydraulic lines in the back of the plane. Cameron later noted that the Air Canada maintenance crew "did a heck of a job getting everything put back together" after the decompression incident. Investigators were unable to find signs of arcing in any of the wire splices from the repairs done four years earlier, though much of the wiring in the rear of the plane was severely damaged or destroyed by the fire itself.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Air Canada Flight 797” (revision 1374696556, 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 narrative
The Safety Board's full report on this investigation is provided as Aviation Accident Report number AAR-86/02. To obtain a copy of this report, or to view the executive summary online, please see the Web site at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm
AT ABOUT 1903 EDT, WHILE ENROUTE AT FL 330, THE CABIN CREW DISCOVERED A FIRE IN THE AFT LAVATORY. AFTER CONTACTING ATC & DECLARING AN EMERGENCY, THE FLT CREW MADE AN EMERGENCY DESCENT & ATC VECTORED THE ACFT TO THE GREATER CINCINNATI INTL ARPT. AT 1920, THE ACFT WAS LANDED ON RWY 27L. AS THE AIRCREW STOPPED THE PLANE, FIRE DEPT PERSONNEL MOVED IN PLACE & BEGAN FIREFIGHTING OPERATIONS. ALSO, AS THE PLANE STOPPED, THE OCCUPANTS BEGAN EVACUATING THE ACFT. ABOUT 60 TO 90 SEC AFTER THE EXITS WERE OPENED, A FLASH FIRE ENVELOPED THE INTERIOR OF THE ACFT. 23 PASSENGERS WERE UNABLE TO EXIT THE ACFT & DIED IN THE FIRE. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT 3 FLUSH MOTOR CIRCUIT BREAKERS HAD POPPED ABOUT 11 MIN BEFORE SMOKE WAS DETECTED. THE CAPTAIN MISCONSTRUED REPORTS THAT THE FIRE WAS ABATING WHEN HE RECEIVED CONFLICTING FIRE PROGRESS REPORTS. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE LANDED AT THE CINCINNATI INTL ARPT RATHER THAN AT LOUISVILLE WHICH WOULD HAVE ALLOWED HIM TO LAND 3 TO 5 MIN SOONER. WET TOWELS & BREATHING THRU CLOTHING AIDED SURVIVAL. FIRE SOURCE UNK.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Air Canada Flight 797
- Article
- Air Canada Flight 797
- Revision
- 1374696556 · 2026-09-13 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2003519
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA83AA028
- Event ID
- 20001214X43285
- Case number
- DCA83AA028
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Air Canada Flight 797" (page 720614, revision 1374696556); merged with NTSB case DCA83AA028 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record DCA83AA028: NTSB API eventDate, eventTimeUtc and eventTimeUtcOffsetHours (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record DCA83AA028
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record DCA83AA028: aircraft; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record DCA83AA028: operated under Part 129: Foreign
- Fatalities
- NTSB record DCA83AA028: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record DCA83AA028: NTSB API ongroundFatal
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Air Canada Flight 797" and NTSB case DCA83AA028, 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.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.