- Date
- December 20, 1983, 13:17 local (19:17 UTC)
- Place
- Sioux Falls, SD
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 2 minor, 84 uninjured; on the ground: 1 fatal
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N994ZDouglas DC-9-31
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Major Investigations Division
- FAA report
- 19831220065129A
- Case key
- 15800
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
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
During landing the crew acquired visual reference with the ground & apch lights about 200 ft AGL, followed by visual sighting of the rwy. Since the ATIS reported blowing snow, the crew expected to see, & was not surprised to see, snow blowing across the rwy about 2,000 ft beyond the threshold. At about 2,200 ft down the rwy the acft entered a cloud of snow, & the right wing struck a large snow sweeping vehicle which was traveling in the same direction & to the right of the rwy centerline. The acft's right wing separated & it swerved off the rwy. Neither the approach controller nor the local controller advised the flt of snow removal operations, nor did the local controller communicate with the sweeper after he took the hand-off of the flt from approach control. He also stated he did not know where the sweeper was when he cleared the flt to land.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N994Z
- Reported as
- Douglas DC-9-31
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 47097
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-7, turbo fan
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Part 121
- Registered owner
- Ozark Air Lines, Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Departed
- SUX · Sioux City, IA
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- KF3D · Joe Foss Field, runway 3, 8,999 × 150 ft, concrete
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
- 58
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 25,217 total · 9,776 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 70° at 9 knots
- Lowest ceiling
- 1,000 ft
- Temperature
- -9 °F, dew point -0 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
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 N994Z · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.