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1988 Star Air accident near Hanover

26 May 1988 · near Hanover-Langenhagen Airport, West Germany

Fokker F-27-600 Friendship and Unknown · The 1988 Star Air accident near Hanover occurred on 26 May 1988

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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
2 · 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

Aircraft 1 · Fokker F-27-600 Friendship

Aircraft type
Fokker F-27
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
OY-APE
Operator
Star Air
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Copenhagen Roskilde Airport (RKE)To Nuremberg Airport (NUE)

Aircraft 2 · Unknown

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
Unknown
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded

Cause areas

  • Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

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

The 1988 Star Air accident near Hanover occurred on 26 May 1988. On that day a Star Air Fokker F-27-600 Friendship cargo aircraft crashed on approach to Hannover-Langenhagen Airport after the angle of attack had reached supercritical values when the lift devices were extended. Both people on board were killed in the incident.

Accident sequence

The approach of the cargo-laden aircraft to Hannover-Langenhagen Airport was carried out in darkness with the aid of the radio compass. The crew received clearance to land on the southern runway 09R. When the lift devices were extended for landing at 22:25 local time, the angle of attack increased abruptly. A stall occurred and the aircraft crashed to the ground one kilometre west of the airport. Both crew members were killed.

Investigation and cause

Cause

The accident investigation found that when the crew attempted to go around, the cargo had shifted rearward as a result of the load change. This shifted the aircraft's centre of gravity, and control was lost. In addition, the lift devices had been set to 11 degrees instead of the required 26 degrees.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall der Star Air bei Hannover 1988” (revision 269735516, 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

Sources

German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall der Star Air bei Hannover 1988
Article
Flugunfall der Star Air bei Hannover 1988
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
269735516 · 2026-08-17 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q94249088
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
de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall der Star Air bei Hannover 1988" (page 11291605, revision 269735516), translated into English with AI assistance
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
operator is an airline according to Wikidata
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the German Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.