Dodita Air Cargo Convair CV-440 accident
Convair Div. of Gen. Dynamics 440 · The Dodita Air Cargo Convair CV-440 accident occurred on 12 July 2004 on a Dodita Air Cargo cargo flight from San Juan to Sint Maarten
From TSJU · San Juan, PR to TSXM · Saint Martin
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL04LA153
- 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
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 1
- 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
- 1 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
Convair Div. of Gen. Dynamics 440
- Aircraft type
- Convair Div Of Gen Dynamics 440
- 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
- N4826C
- Operator
- Dodita Air Cargo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From TSJU · San Juan, PRTo TSXM · Saint Martin
- 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 125: 20+ Pax,6000+ lbs
- 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
- Powerplant › Fire
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
The Dodita Air Cargo Convair CV-440 accident occurred on 12 July 2004 on a Dodita Air Cargo cargo flight from San Juan to Sint Maarten. After the aircraft had to ditch in the Caribbean Sea because of an engine fire and engine separation, it broke apart on touching down on the water surface. The first officer was seriously injured; the captain's body could not be found after the accident.
Accident sequence
The aircraft took off early in the morning in San Juan on a visual flight to Sint Maarten. After they had reached the cruising altitude of 5,500 feet above sea level, the pilots noticed that the temperature of the right engine cylinder head and the oil temperature were about 10 degrees above normal. Shortly afterwards both pilots noticed a sharp drop in the
mean effective pressure of the right engine, followed by vibrations in the engine. A fire broke out in the area of the front lower cylinders. The captain feathered the right propeller, pulled the emergency shut-off handle and activated the main and reserve bottles of the engine fire extinguishing system. However, the fire had spread to the entire front side of the engine cylinders. Owing to the structural weakening, the burning engine separated from the aircraft's wing and fell into the sea. The crew then prepared for a ditching. The first officer handed the captain a life jacket and then put on his own. The captain put his life jacket aside and did not put it on. During the descent the first officer opened his side window, but the captain did not. At a height of 300 feet and still on a westerly heading, the first officer noticed that the indicated airspeed was about 135 to 140 knots and that the leading edge of the right wing was in flames and beginning to melt. After the impact on the water surface, the cockpit section also came into contact with the water and briefly submerged. The cockpit resurfaced once and the water was above the shoulders of both pilots. One of the wings and the cockpit broke off and the aircraft sank in water 1,000 feet deep. The first officer was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. The captain was reported missing; his body was not found despite an intensive search.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The wreck of the aircraft was never raised. The cause of the accident was determined to be the fire in the area of the right engine, the cause of which remained unknown.
Furthermore, it could not be determined why the captain did not want to open his window or put on his life jacket and therefore sank with the aircraft.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Convair CV-440 der Dodita Air Cargo” (revision 251249752, 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
The co-pilot stated that the pre-flight and run-up before takeoff were performed with no discrepancies noted. After leveling off at 5,500 feet they noticed that the right engine cylinder head temperature and oil temperature was about 10 degrees above the normal parameter for that engine. Shortly after, both pilot's noticed a sharp decrease in the right engine mean effective pressure followed by vibration in the engine. The co-pilot looked at the right engine and informed the pilot that it was on fire around the front lower cylinders. Attempts by the pilot to extinguish the engine fire were unsuccessful. The pilot advised Air Traffic Control of their intention to ditch due to the right engine uncontrolled fire. The co-pilot, handed a life jacket to the pilot and then put his on. The pilot placed his life preserver to the side and did not put it on. While descending the co-pilot opened his side window, but the pilot did not. According to the co-pilot, shortly before ditching the pilot requested 10-degrees of flaps but the flaps did not move. Both pilots were at the controls of the airplane for the ditching. A review of maintenance records revealed that the right engine was installed on the airframe on May 14, 2003 at 45,660.5 hours total airframe time. A complete "C" Check was accomplished on June 15, 2004 at a total time of 45,741.8 hours with no discrepancies noted. The airplane ditched into the Caribbean Ocean 29 miles southeast of Beef Island, Virgin Islands, in an undetermined depth of water, neither the pilot or the airplane wreckage was recovered.
Probable cause
The in-flight fire on the number two engine, for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Convair CV-440 der Dodita Air Cargo
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 251249752 · 2024-12-14 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q126810684
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ATL04LA153
- Event ID
- 20040728X01082
- Case number
- ATL04LA153
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Convair CV-440 der Dodita Air Cargo" (page 12778627, revision 251249752), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ATL04LA153 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record ATL04LA153: events.ev_date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record ATL04LA153
- Map position
- NTSB record ATL04LA153: events decimal coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record ATL04LA153: 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 ATL04LA153: operated under Part 125: 20+ Pax,6000+ lbs
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities (the NTSB record states no total)
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record ATL04LA153: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Dodita Air Cargo Convair CV-440 accident" and NTSB case ATL04LA153, 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.