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IAI Westwind crash in Manila

29 Mar 2020 · Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila (Philippines)

Lionair IAI Westwind · Crew error, tyre failure

From Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, Philippines to Haneda International Airport, Tokyo, Japan

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Event

NTSB case
WPR20WA114
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
8 · 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 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
Airline
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Not recorded

IAI Westwind

Aircraft type
Iai WESTWIND
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
RP-C5880
Operator
Lionair
Onboard fatalities
8
Route
From Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, PhilippinesTo Haneda International Airport, Tokyo, Japan
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
Takeoff · rejected takeoff
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
Runway excursion
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

  • Personnel issues › Action/decision
  • Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
  • Personnel issues › Psychological
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

From the Wikipedia article

The IAI Westwind crash in Manila was an air disaster that occurred on 29 March 2020. An IAI 1124A Westwind II aircraft of the Philippine charter airline Lionair was operating an air ambulance flight to evacuate a seriously ill patient from Manila to Tokyo, with a final destination in Canada. During takeoff from Ninoy Aquino International Airport, a tyre on the right main landing gear failed, after which the pilots decided to abort the takeoff at a speed exceeding the calculated one. The aircraft ran off the runway, collided with a fence and caught fire. All 8 people on board were killed.

This crash became the deadliest in the history of IAI Westwind aircraft.

Investigation and cause

Investigation

After the crash the runway was closed and an investigation was opened. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines announced the possible suspension of Lionair's air operator certificate. This was the airline's second fatal crash in 7 months — in September 2019 another Lionair aircraft crashed, killing 9 people.

Airport staff reported that the crashed aircraft used a longer distance for its takeoff run than usual. The authorities also stated that the aircraft encountered an unidentified fire during the takeoff run.

The flight recorders (cockpit voice and flight data) were sent to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in Canberra for analysis.

The commission's final report stated that the causes of the crash were:

The pilots' decision to abort the takeoff at a speed exceeding the calculated one (V₁);

Insufficient training of the pilots for actions in such a situation;

Haste due to a delay in submitting the flight plan;

Skipping the pre-flight checklist, which includes instructions for actions in the event of a failure near V₁.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа IAI Westwind в Маниле” (revision 155113134, 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 government of the Philippines has notified the NTSB of an accident involving an Israel Aircraft Industries 1124A airplane that occurred on March 29, 2020. The NTSB has appointed a U.S. Accredited Representative to assist the government of the Philippines's investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13.All investigative information will be released by the government of the Philippines.

Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset

Sources

Russian Wikipedia article: Катастрофа IAI Westwind в Маниле
Article
Катастрофа IAI Westwind в Маниле
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
155113134 · 2026-09-16 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q90994048
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record WPR20WA114
Event ID
20200330X23118
Case number
WPR20WA114
Dataset
full-current
Source SHA-256
5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
Record
ru Wikipedia article "Катастрофа IAI Westwind в Маниле" (page 11476355, revision 155113134), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case WPR20WA114 (events / aircraft)
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
NTSB record WPR20WA114: NTSB API eventLatitude/eventLongitude
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 WPR20WA114
Operation
operator is an airline according to Wikidata
Fatalities
Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
  • One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "IAI Westwind crash in Manila" and NTSB case WPR20WA114, 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.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.