- Date
- August 3, 1990, 11:45 local (18:45 UTC)
- Place
- Coeur D'Alene, ID
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 282 uninjured
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N1804UMcdonnell Douglas DC-10-10
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 9, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19900803064639A
- Case key
- 41258
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Passenger spilling a hot cup of coffee in her lap while the flight was in cruise flight.
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 cruise flight, a flight attendant handed a passenger a cup of coffee. The attendant then began to serve another passenger when the first passenger knocked her serving tray and the cup of coffee spilled in her lap. The passenger received second degree burns and was hospitalized for three days. There was no report of turbulence at the time of the accident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N1804U
- Reported as
- Mcdonnell Douglas DC-10-10
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 3604
- Engine
- Unknown UNKNOWN, turbo fan
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Registered owner
- United Airlines
- Departed
- ORD · Chicago, IL
- Destination
- SEA · Seattle, WA
- 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
- 53
- Certificates
- Flight engineer, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Flight hours
- 12,000 total · 1,500 in this make and model · 2,000 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- -0 °F, dew point -0 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.