- Date
- July 18, 1989, 19:05 local (Jul 19, 1989, 00:05 UTC)
- Place
- Chicago, IL
- Injuries
- 250 uninjured
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N1846UMcdonnell Douglas DC-10-10
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report October 7, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Case key
- 14285
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
Hydroplaning attributed to the physical condition of the runway, and the airport personnel's failure to adequately maintain the runway. Contributing factors were: the rain and the wet runway.
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
The airplane hydroplaned after landing and ran off the end of the runway. Runway inspection revealed that the runway grooving along the airplane's landing roll track was worn to the point to which it was nonexistent, and there were large areas of standing water on the runway. The airport had recorded 1.28 inches of rainfall during the four hour period immediately preceding the incident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N1846U
- Reported as
- Mcdonnell Douglas DC-10-10
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 48262
- Airframe hours
- 28,724
- Engine
- GE CF6-6D, 39,300 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- United Airlines, doing business as United Airlines
- Registered owner
- United Airlines
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- AAIP · July 10, 1989 · 121 hours before
- Departed
- CLE · Cleveland, OH
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- ORD · O'Hare Intl, runway 22R, 7,500 × 150 ft, asphalt
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 54
- Certificates
- Commercial, Flight engineer, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 16,000 total · 2,450 in this make and model · 8,000 as pilot in command · 110 in the last 90 days · 29 in the last 30 days · 7 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 190° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 3 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 6,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 61 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ORD, 1 nm away