Douglas DC-3 crash in the Mojave Desert
National Test Pilot School Douglas DC-3/65AR · Collision with the ground
From Mojave Air & Space Port (MHV) to Mojave Air & Space Port (MHV)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09LA108
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 2
- 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
- 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
Douglas DC-3/65AR
- 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
- N834TP
- Operator
- National Test Pilot School
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mojave Air & Space Port (MHV), Mojave, CATo Mojave Air & Space Port (MHV), Mojave, CA
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
From the Wikipedia article
The training flight of the flight school National Test Pilot School was a simple training flight in the Mojave Desert, United States. On 4 February 2009 a Douglas DC-3 crashed shortly after takeoff from Mojave Airport; no one was killed.
Crash
The Douglas DC-3 aircraft, whose serial number is N834TP, collided with the ground during takeoff from Mojave Airport, California. The instructor pilot and the trainee pilot were not injured; the aircraft sustained significant damage to the fuselage and wings from the force of the impact with the ground.
The trainee pilot was performing the takeoff. While gaining speed on runway 30, the aircraft began to drift to the right, after which the trainee began applying left rudder to correct the drift. The instructor advanced the right throttle during a surface wave in an attempt to counteract the deviation from the course to the right. The tailwheel lifted off the ground at a speed of 80 knots, and the aircraft again deviated to the right. The instructor applied left rudder in an attempt to stop the deviation from the course and the drift. As the aircraft began to leave the runway, the pilots did not reduce the throttle or apply the brakes, since they believed it would be safer not to do this in order to keep the aircraft in the air.
The aircraft slowed after it lifted off the runway. the aircraft collided with a series of berms, which sheared off the left landing gear and the left engine. The right landing gear collapsed, and the aircraft tipped onto its nose.
The operator stated that the trainee pilot had accidentally set the rudder trim fully to the right position, and that he had adjusted the rudder pedals during the pre-start check. The rudder trim had been set in the full right position for takeoff, and was in the same position after the post-accident inspection.
Investigation and cause
Probable cause
The trainee pilot did not follow the checklist, and set the trim properly before takeoff, which led to a loss of directional control. Also contributing to this accident were the inadequate supervision by the instructor pilot and the delay in measures to correct the situation.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Ukrainian Wikipedia article “Катастрофа Douglas DC-3 в пустелі Мохаве” (revision 46646047, 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
During the takeoff roll, the airplane began to drift to the right. Despite the certified flight instructor's and student's attempts, they were unable to stop the yaw and drift. As the airplane was about to depart the runway, the pilots did not reduce the throttles or apply brakes as they felt that it would be safer to attempt to get airborne. After departing the runway surface, the airplane collided with a series of berms, which sheared off the left landing gear and left engine. The right landing gear collapsed, and the airplane came to rest in a nose down attitude. Post accident examination revealed that the student pilot had inadvertently set the rudder trim to the full right position when he adjusted the rudder pedals during the prestart checks. The rudder trim was in the full right position for the takeoff, and found in the same position upon post accident inspection.
Probable cause
The student pilot failed to follow the checklist and set the takeoff trim properly prior to takeoff resulting in a loss of directional control. Contributing to the accident were the certified flight instructor's inadequate supervision and delayed remedial action.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Ukrainian Wikipedia article: Катастрофа Douglas DC-3 в пустелі Мохаве
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 46646047 · 2025-11-22 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q16691089
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record WPR09LA108
- Event ID
- 20090204X22909
- Case number
- WPR09LA108
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- uk Wikipedia article "Катастрофа Douglas DC-3 в пустелі Мохаве" (page 1622209, revision 46646047), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case WPR09LA108 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record WPR09LA108: NTSB narrative opening date, consistent with the API date and time (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record WPR09LA108
- Map position
- NTSB record WPR09LA108: events decimal coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record WPR09LA108: 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 WPR09LA108: operated under Part 91: General Aviation
- Fatalities
- NTSB record WPR09LA108: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record WPR09LA108: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Douglas DC-3 crash in the Mojave Desert" and NTSB case WPR09LA108, 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.