- Date
- March 9, 1989, 17:13 local (22:13 UTC)
- Place
- Dayton, OH
- Injuries
- 82 uninjured
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N217USBoeing 737-201
- Weather
- Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 26, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19890309003999I
- Case key
- 7928
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
On this page
Probable cause
An excessively worn outflow valve in the cabin evironmental/pressurization system that resulted in a rapid cabin depressurization.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
A passenger died after a rapid decompression and emergency descent. There was no damage to the airplane or injury to the remaining occupants of the airplane. An investigation revealed that an uncontrollable outflow valve resulted in a rapid decompression at FL 310. The oxygen masks deployed & the cpt made an emergency descent to 10,000 ft, then continued to Dayton, landing at 1740. The passenger was taken to a Dayton hospital and died at about 6 hours and 50 minutes later. The montgomery county coroner ruled that death was due to natural causes.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N217US
- Reported as
- Boeing 737-201
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 20215
- Airframe hours
- 49,548
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-9A, 20,500 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Registered owner
- Piedmont Aviation
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Departed
- TPA · Tampa, FL
- Flight plan
- IFR
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 39
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 12,800 total · 2,500 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Day
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N217US · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.