Philippine Air Lines Flight 984
Douglas C-47B · Controlled flight into terrain in bad weather
From Zamboanga International Airport (ZAM) to Francisco Bangoy International Airport (DVO)
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
- Event fatalities
- 27 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Douglas C-47B
- Aircraft type
- Douglas C-47
- 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
- PI-C489
- Operator
- Philippine Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- 27
- Route
- From Zamboanga International Airport (ZAM)To Francisco Bangoy International Airport (DVO)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Psychological
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
Philippine Air Lines Flight 984 was a scheduled domestic flight operated by Philippine Air Lines that crashed en route to Francisco Bangoy International Airport, Davao City, Philippines.
On March 2, 1963, the Douglas C-47B was flying in overcast weather en route to Davao when it crashed on the slopes of Mount Boca, near sitio Kiniledan, reportedly about 50 mi from Davao, on the second leg of a Zamboanga-Cotabato-Davao route that originated from Zamboanga. Everyone on board was killed upon impact.
Crash
Flight 984 departed Cotabato at 09:40 PHT and was estimated to arrive at Davao by 10:25. At 10:02, the crew reported to the radio station at Cotabato that they were halfway to Davao at 6,000 ft, and was beginning to descend.
Later on, it contacted the radio station at Davao asking for the weather conditions present in the area. After having received the weather information the flight was advised that its arrival would be delayed due to bad weather. There was no report concerning a malfunction with the aircraft and this would end up to be the final radio transmission from the aircraft.
When Flight 984 failed to arrive at Davao, a search was conducted, where the wreckage was subsequently found on Mount Boca, about 50 miles from Davao Airport, at an altitude of 3,000 ft. It was estimated the aircraft crashed at around 11:30.
Investigation and cause
Investigation and cause
The weather on the flight path was not formally available for the pilots as this was the first flight of the day on the Cotabato-Davao segment, so they had to rely on the weather reports of other pilots. The PAL radio operator at Davao had reported a visibility of 1 – 2 mi, 500 – 1,000 ft in overcast and wind speeds of 5 – 8 knots.
The Philippine Aircraft Accident Investigation Board investigated the crash. The probable flight path was reconstructed, and it was believed that the aircraft may had drifted inland due to eastern winds at about 10 knots. When the pilot asked for weather at Davao, he may had believed he was over the Digos shoreline, but instead he was 3 mi off course in poor visibility and was approximately 5 mi inland of Digos when he started his descent. The Board believed that the pilot was too confident of his position and flight experience that he did not take into account the crosswinds that drifted the aircraft off course.
Therefore, the probable cause was determined to be a navigational error, en-route and during descent, with contributing factors being the limited visibility and crosswind in the final stages of the flight.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Philippine Air Lines Flight 984” (revision 1370669186, 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: Philippine Air Lines Flight 984
- Revision
- 1370669186 · 2026-08-22 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q125121205
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Philippine Air Lines Flight 984" (page 76310016, revision 1370669186)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.