Dakota disaster
Dutch Dakota Association Douglas DC-3 · On 25 September 1996 the Douglas DC-3 (nickname Dakota) PH-DDA of the Dutch Dakota Association (DDA) crashed into the Wadden Sea
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA96WA222
- 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 · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 32 · 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
- 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
- Unknown
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Unknown
Douglas DC-3
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- 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
- PH-DDA
- Operator
- Dutch Dakota Association
- Onboard fatalities
- 32
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Environmental issues › Task environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 25 September 1996 the Douglas DC-3 (nickname Dakota) PH-DDA of the Dutch Dakota Association (DDA) crashed into the Wadden Sea. All 32 occupants were killed.
Investigation and cause
Cause
An investigation into the circumstances was launched by the Raad voor de Luchtvaart (Aviation Board). The final report appeared in December 1997. It showed that the aircraft had had problems more often. After further investigation the investigators discovered that the oil pump of one of the engines had become blocked, causing this engine to fail. A DC-3 does not have a warning system for oil pump failures.
Why the aircraft subsequently crashed has never become entirely clear. A DC-3 can in fact fly on one engine, albeit with little power remaining. The propeller of the failed engine must then be feathered, but this did not succeed, probably because a small piston in an oil pressure switch had become stuck.
The workload of the crew was extra high because the crew was confronted with a multiple technical failure, and because of the unfortunate layout of the Dakota's instrument panel. They were probably so busy trying to get the propeller feathered after all that they paid insufficient attention to flying the aircraft. The precise course of events in the cockpit cannot be exactly reconstructed because the aircraft was not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Dutch Wikipedia article “Dakotaramp” (revision 68686809, 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
Dutch Wikipedia article: Dakotaramp
- Article
- Dakotaramp
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 68686809 · 2025-01-04 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q2153672
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record SEA96WA222
- Event ID
- 20001208X06824
- Case number
- SEA96WA222
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- nl Wikipedia article "Dakotaramp" (page 514058, revision 68686809), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case SEA96WA222 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record SEA96WA222
- Operation
- not stated in the Wikipedia article's infobox or opening paragraph
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Dakota disaster" and NTSB case SEA96WA222, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.