Southern Air Transport Flight 15
Lockheed 382G · Loss of control on takeoff due to failure to remove the elevator locks
From Lackland Air Force Base (SKF) to KWRP · Warner Robins, GA
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location and departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA87AA002
- 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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
- 0
- 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
Lockheed 382G
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed 382
- 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
- N15ST
- Operator
- Southern Air Transport
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Lackland Air Force Base (SKF)To KWRP · Warner Robins, GA
- 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
- 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
- Company/operator management › Procedure inadequate
- Copilot/second pilot › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Flt control syst, elevator control › Jammed
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: Lackland Air Force Base, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
Southern Air Transport Flight 15 (callsign: LOGAIR 15) was a military cargo charter flight of the American company Southern Air Transport from Lackland Air Force Base in Texas to Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. On this flight, a serious accident occurred on 4 October 1986 when the Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules being used went out of control on takeoff and crashed to the ground. All three occupants of the aircraft died in the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft arrived at Lackland Air Force Base at 02:20. The loadmaster later stated that during the loading process he had observed that the elevator was in a horizontal position. Had the flight control surfaces not been locked, the trailing edge of the elevator would have pointed downwards. At 04:01 the aircraft taxied to the start point of runway 15; at 04:05 local time the aircraft received clearance to take off from Lackland Air Force Base. The flight to Warner Robbins Air Force Base, a cargo charter flight on behalf of the United States Air Force, was to be conducted under instrument flight rules. After takeoff the aircraft reached a height of 700 feet above the ground. Eyewitnesses observed the aircraft climbing steeply until it rolled to the left and struck almost vertically between two hangars in the gate area and caught fire. All three occupants of the aircraft were killed in the accident.
Accident investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board took over the investigation into the cause of the crash. The final report was published on 9 April 1987. The cause was the jamming of the elevator, caused by the operator's use of an unauthorised device (control lock). The uncertified device was intended to raise the elevator during loading operations, but the pilots forgot to remove it again before takeoff, so that the aircraft took off without controllable elevators.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Southern-Air-Transport-Flug 15” (revision 269907687, 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
AFTER THE ACFT LANDED AT KELLY AFB, TX, ON 10/2/86, THERE WAS A CREW CHG BFR IT DEPD ON THE NEXT FLT. DRG THE NEXT TAKE-OFF, THE ACFT LIFTED OFF NEAR THE MIDPOINT OF RWY 15 (APRX 5775' FM THE APCH END). WHEN IT WAS AT APRX 100' TO 200' AGL,WITNESSES SAW IT GO INTO AN EXTREMELY NOSE HI ATTITUDE & CLIMB ABOUT ANOTHER 500'. ALSO, THE ACFT ROLLED TO THE LEFT & CONTD ROLLING & TURNING LEFT UNTIL IT CRASHED ON THE RAMP IN A NEAR INVERTED ATTITUDE ON A HDG OF ABOUT 070 DEG. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT AN ELEVATOR CONTROL (CTL) BLOCK HAD JAMMED THE 1ST OFFICER'S (FO'S) CTL COLUMN WHEN THE ACFT TOOK OFF.THE FO OF THE PREVIOUS FLT HAD INSTALLED IT ON THE CTL COLUMN AFTER THAT FLT. THE FO OF THE ACDNT FLT HAD BEEN HIRED 6 DAYS EARLIER & MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FAMILIAR WITH THE DEVICE. THE BLOCK WAS DESIGNED TO KEEP THE ELEVATOR IN A FAIRED OR SLIGHTLY RAISED (TRAILING EDGE UP) POSITION FOR LOADING OPNS, BUT IT WAS NOT AN APPROVED DEVICE. THERE WAS AN UNWRITTEN PRACTICE FOR THE FO TO INSTALL & REMOVE THE DEVICE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Southern-Air-Transport-Flug 15
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 269907687 · 2026-08-23 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q110967099
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA87AA002
- Event ID
- 20001213X34942
- Case number
- DCA87AA002
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Southern-Air-Transport-Flug 15" (page 12065142, revision 269907687), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case DCA87AA002 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record DCA87AA002: NTSB API eventDate, eventTimeUtc and eventTimeUtcOffsetHours (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record DCA87AA002
- Map position
- Wikipedia: airport the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata code, OurAirports)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record DCA87AA002: 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 DCA87AA002: operated under Part 121: Air Carrier
- Fatalities
- NTSB record DCA87AA002: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record DCA87AA002: NTSB API ongroundFatal
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Southern Air Transport Flight 15" and NTSB case DCA87AA002, 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.