1990 Omega Air Boeing 707 accident
Boeing 707-321B · Runway excursion due to incorrect takeoff configuration
From Pinal Airpark (MZJ) to Davis Monthan Air Force Base (DMA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA90MA055
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
- 2
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Boeing 707-321B
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- 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
- N320MJ
- Operator
- Omega Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pinal Airpark (MZJ), Marana, AZTo Davis Monthan Air Force Base (DMA), Tucson, AZ
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- 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
- 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 › Checklist, not used
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
The accident of an Omega Air Boeing 707 occurred on 20 September 1990, when a retired Boeing 707-321B, which was to make its last flight to be scrapped for parts at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, crashed on take-off from Pinal Airpark. One person was killed in the accident. In the course of the accident investigation it emerged that the crashed aircraft had already been partially dismantled and was not airworthy.
Accident sequence
During take-off from runway 12, shortly after lift-off, the aircraft rolled to the right because the rudder was incorrectly set. The aircraft went to the ground and spun around its own axis, whereupon the fuselage broke apart. The captain was killed.
Cause of the accident
The accident investigation concluded that the captain had probably worked through the checklist from memory and in doing so had overlooked an incorrect rudder trim. In addition, the aircraft had essentially been handed over in a no longer airworthy condition: the cockpit was partially dismantled: about 50 instruments and switches, which were contractually due to other salvage companies, had already been removed. The only instruments available were two airspeed indicators, an altimeter and an artificial horizon. The compass was missing, as was part of the checklists. The engine thrust indicators (measured as Engine Pressure Ratio, EPR) were only provisionally attached.
In its final report the NTSB on the one hand held the pilot responsible for the accident, as he had not used a checklist, but had also gained little recent flying experience on this aircraft type. In addition, the NTSB also criticised the operation of an obviously unairworthy aircraft as well as inadequate oversight of the process by the Federal Aviation Administration, especially since the aircraft were operated under a special permit.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der Omega Air 1990” (revision 251248568, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES RPRTD 1ST ATMT TO TKOF WAS ABORTED AFTER ACFT SWERVED LEFT & RGT. ON 2ND TRY, ACFT LIFTED OFF ABT HALFWAY DWN RWY. AFTER LIFT-OFF, IT ROLLED RGT, RGT WING HIT GND & ACFT CRASHED. INV REVEALED RUDDER TRIM WAS 7.9 TO 8.3 UNITS (79% TO 83%) NOSE RGT. SIMULATOR TESTS WITH THAT SETTING RESULTED IN CONSISTENT RGT WING COLLISIONS WITH GND AFTER LIFT-OFF. CREW'S CHECKLIST REFERRED TO MECH CHECKLIST FOR CRITICAL ITEMS TO CHECK BFR TKOF. MECH CHECKLIST & 50 OF 54 FLT INST HAD BEEN REMOVED FM ACFT, LEAVING 2 AIRSPEED INDCRS, ALTIMETER & STBY GYRO HORIZON. IN 60 SIMULATED TKOFS IN THIS CONFIGURATION, THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF INSUFFICIENT ATTITUDINAL REF TO RECOGNIZE ROLLING OF ACFT BFR SUFFICIENT ALT WAS ATTAINED. FAA'S DESIGNATED AIRWORTHINESS REP (DAR) HAD INSPD ACFT 3 DAYS BFR & ISSUED FERRY PERMIT. HE LACKED FAA MECH CERT & EXPERIENCE WITH LARGE ACFT. FAA ORDER 8000.62 & AC 183.33 LACKED SPEC GUIDANCE FOR SELECTION, TRNG & OVERSIGHT OF DAR ACTIVITY. ALSO, LACK OF GUIDANCE CONCERNING MIN EQUIP LIST. PLT NOT CURRENT OR MED QUALIFIED TO FLY ACFT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PREFLIGHT PLANNING/PREPARATION BY THE PILOT, AND HIS FAILURE TO USE A CHECKLIST. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE FAA'S INADEQUATE SURVEILLANCE OF THE OPERATION, THE FAA'S INSUFFICIENT STANDARDS/REQUIREMENTS, THE PILOT'S OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT WITH KNOWN DEFICIENCES, AND HIS LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE IN THE TYPE OF AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der Omega Air 1990
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251248568 · 2024-12-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q65235417
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA90MA055
- Event ID
- 20001212X24238
- Case number
- DCA90MA055
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Boeing 707 der Omega Air 1990" (page 10723355, revision 251248568), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case DCA90MA055 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record DCA90MA055: events.ev_date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record DCA90MA055
- Map position
- NTSB record DCA90MA055: events decimal coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record DCA90MA055: 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 DCA90MA055: operated under Part 91: General Aviation
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities (the NTSB record states no total)
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record DCA90MA055: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "1990 Omega Air Boeing 707 accident" and NTSB case DCA90MA055, 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.
- The date is the UTC date the NTSB stores; the local date may be a day earlier.