Delta Air Lines Flight 1141

Delta Air Lines Flight 1141

Accident summary
Date	August 31, 1988
Type	Pilot error (failure to set flaps and slats correctly) and takeoff warning horn failure
Site	Dallas-Fort Worth Int'l Airport Euless, Tarrant County, Texas
Passengers	101
Crew	7
Injuries	76 (26 serious)
Fatalities	14
Survivors	94
Aircraft type	Boeing 727
Operator	Delta Air Lines
Tail number	N473DA
Flight origin	Dallas-Fort Worth Int'l Airport
Destination	Salt Lake City Int'l Airport

Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight between Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah. On August 31, 1988, the flight, operated by a Boeing 727, crashed upon takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth, killing 14 of the 108 passengers and crew on board, and injuring 76 others.

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft was a tri-engined Boeing 727-200 Advanced, FAA registration number N473DA. It was delivered in November 1973, the 992nd Boeing 727 to be manufactured, and had 43,023 flight hours.

The flight crew consisted of Captain Larry Davis, 48; First Officer Gary Kirkland, 37; and Flight Engineer Steven Judd, 31. The cabin crew consisted of four flight attendants: Dixie Dunn, 56, Diana George, 40, Rosilyn Marr, 43, and Mary O'Neill, 57.

Crash

Flight DL1141 to Salt Lake City left Gate 15 at 8:30AM CDT and was instructed to taxi to runway 18L. At 8:57AM DL1141 was cleared to "taxi into position and hold 18L, expect one minute for wake turbulence behind the heavy DC-10." At 8:59:17AM the flight was cleared for takeoff. The takeoff was uneventful until the airplane reached the rotation phase (at 154 knots, 6017 feet down the runway). As the main gear wheels left the ground, the airplane began to roll violently, causing the right wingtip to contact the runway (1,033 feet after lift-off). The plane continued and at 9:00:35AM struck the ILS localizer antenna array 1,000 feet past the end of the runway. After impact the airplane remained airborne for an additional 400 feet, then struck the ground, traversed a ground depression and slid sideways until it came to rest near the airport perimeter fence, 3,200 feet from the runway end. It was destroyed by impact forces and the postcrash fire. The flight lasted approximately 22 seconds from liftoff to the first ground impact.

Casualties

Two cabin crew members of four and twelve of the 101 passengers on board lost their lives. One passenger, who sat in 29C and had exited the aircraft through the aft break in the left side of the fuselage, attempted to re-enter the aircraft, received burn wounds, and died 11 days later.

Two flight crew members, two cabin crew members, and 22 passengers were seriously injured. One flight crew member and 49 passengers received minor injuries. 18 passengers received no injuries.

Flight Attendants Dixie Dunn and Rosilyn Marr and passengers Millar Browne, 55; Glen Campbell, 54; Jennifer Campbell, 44; Marian Fadal, 65; Barbara Morgan, 29; Patrick Morgan, 28; Tiffany Morgan, 14 months; Jerry Owens, 29; Robert Speer, 25; Philip Vogel, 69; and Thelma Morgan, 67, died in the crash.

Seating chart for Flight 1141 including occupant survival and, if known, egress route. Click to enlarge and see legend.

Investigation

On September 26, 1989 the NTSB (National Safety Transportation Board) published the accident report. Two causes were primarily blamed for the accident: (1) The crew had not ensured that the wing's flaps and slats were properly positioned for take-off, and (2) the plane's takeoff warning horn, designed to alert the crew if the engines are throttled to take-off power without the flaps and slats being correctly set, was not operating correctly. The airplane did not gain sufficient speed to climb in a flaps-and-slats-retracted condition, causing a loss of lift. The continued high angle of attack combined with a lack of lift resulted in a configuration where disturbed air flowing over the wings disrupted the air flow into the engines causing compressor stall. Subsequent collision with the instrument landing system (ILS) localizer antenna array approximately 1,000 feet beyond the departure end of the runway 18L lead to the breakup of the aircraft.

FAA regulations require a sterile cockpit before takeoff, which means there is to be no conversation unrelated to the aircraft and pending flight. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) tapes recorded extensive talk about the CVR itself and how on Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crew discussions were recorded about the dating habits of the flight attendants. Media broadcast of the CVR tapes, which demonstrated why the crew mistakenly mispositioned the flaps, provoked such an outcry by pilots that subsequent releases of CVR data have been restricted by law and carefully vetted by the NTSB.

See also

Similar accidents (crash shortly after takeoff due to misconfiguration of flaps/slats, failure of the improper takeoff configuration warning horn):

• Mandala Airlines Flight 091
• Spanair Flight 5022
• Northwest Airlines Flight 255
• Lufthansa Flight 540
• LAPA Flight 3142

External links

• NTSB report
• Air Disaster page on Flight 1141
• Cockpit Voice Recording from 1141
• The crash of Flight 1141/Crash resurrects memories of 1985