- Date
- February 21, 1986, 08:59 local (13:59 UTC)
- Place
- Erie, PA
- Injuries
- 1 minor, 22 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N961VJMcDonnell Douglas DC-9-31
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Major Investigations Division
- Case key
- 15853
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
Drg arrival, the crew of us air flt 499 lndd on rwy 24, which was cvrd with snw. Rprtdly, while lndg, the acft touched dwn aprx 1800 to 2000' bynd the displaced threshold. Altho armed, the spoilers did not auto-deploy, so the capt operatedthem manually. He lowered the acft's nose, actuated reverse thrust & applied brakes. The brakes were not effective. Subsequently, the acft contd off the end of the rwy, ran ovr a rwy end id lgt, struck a fence & came to rest straddling a road. The crew had planned on making an ILS apch to rwy 6, but the RVR was only 2800' & a min RVR of 4000' was reqd for that rwy. The crew elected to lnd on rwy 24, since 1/2 mi vis was sufficient for that rwy. However, the apch was made with a qtrg tail wnd & aprx 10 KTS abv vref. Tail wnd lndgs were not authorized on rwy 24 in wet/slippery conds. The rwy braking action was rprtd as fair-to-poor. The plt's handbook cautioned the crew to monitor the spoilers when lndg on slippery rwys, since the spoilers auto-deploy only with wheel spin-up or when the nose wheel is on the ground.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N961VJ
- Reported as
- McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 47506
- Airframe hours
- 42,104
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-7B, 14,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- Usair
- Registered owner
- Usair
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · January 2, 1986 · 326 hours before
- Departed
- YYZ · Toronto,Canada, OF
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- KERI · Erie Intl, runway 24, 6,000 × 150 ft, asphalt
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
- 37
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane, Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 8,900 total · 5,900 in this make and model · 180 in the last 90 days · 39 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 10° at 12 knots
- Lowest ceiling
- 200 ft
- Temperature
- 32 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg