- Date
- August 2, 1985, 18:06 local (23:06 UTC)
- Place
- Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
- Injuries
- 135 fatal, 15 serious, 13 minor, 2 uninjured; on the ground: 1 fatal, 1 minor
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N726DALockheed L-1011-385-1
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Board-adopted at Board Meeting
- NTSB office
- Major Investigations Division
- Safety recommendations
- Yes
- FAA report
- 19850802077519A
- Case key
- 15836
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
The Safety Board's full report on this investigation is provided as Aviation Accident Report number AAR-86/05. To obtain a copy of this report, or to view the executive summary online, please see the Web site at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm
Psbl scattered thunderstorms (tstms) were forcast & drg arrival, svrl cells were developing in the area. Delta flt 191 was vectored arnd a large cell, then was sequenced bhnd other acft & clrd for an ILS rwy 17L apch. The flt crew & svrl preceeding crews saw lightning in a cell north of the arpt, but contd w/o rprtg it. On the apch, flt 191 encountered a microburst while passing under the cell. Initially, the 1st officer, who was flying the acft, retarded the throttles in a headwind. The acft then encountered aprx 73 KTS of windshear, up/dwndfts, vortex flow & a tailwind. Go-around pwr was applied, but the acft struck the gnd aprx 6300' north of rwy 17L, hit a car & 2 water tanks, broke apart & burned. Inv revealed that btn 1752 & 1800 CDT, the tstm cell grew fm vip lvl 1 to vip lvl 4. A center wx svc unit meteorologist was on duty, but not at the radar psn at that time & didn't obsv the cell growth. Capt's decision to cont apch didn't complywith delta's wx avoidance proc; there was a lack of specific guidance & training for avoiding/escaping low alt wndshear.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N726DA
- Reported as
- Lockheed L-1011-385-1 (L-1011-385)
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 193C-1163
- Engine
- Rolls-Royce RB-211-22B, 41,030 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Fire
- On-Ground
- Flight
- Part 121
- Registered owner
- Delta Airlines, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Departed
- FLL · Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- Destination
- DFW
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- DFW · Dallas/Fort Worth Intl, runway 17L, 11,388 × 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
- 57
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Toxicology
- Performed
- Flight hours
- 29,300 total · 3,000 in this make and model · 166 in the last 90 days · 81 in the last 30 days · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Temperature
- 100 °F, dew point -0 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- DFW, 2 nm away
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 N726DA · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.