McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30F N602GC

Summary

On 8 November 1999 at about 07:20 local time, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30F registered N602GC was involved in an accident near Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. 5 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

8 November 1999 at 07:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30F

Registration

N602GC

Category

Airplane

Engines

3

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Honolulu → Nandi Fiji

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

LAX00FA041

Nobody was injured.

The pilot-in-command initiated an evasive manuver during a near midair collission. The airplane entered a prestall buffet, which resulted in buckling of the elevator skins.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The DC-10 captain, in response to a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alert, made an aggressive pitch change and felt a slight buffet as the airplane decelerated. The maneuver resulted in wrinkling of the elevator skins. Air Traffic Control (ATC) instructed a DC-9 crew to maintain visual separation and the DC-9 crew accepted the instruction. The airplanes were about 7 miles from each other in night conditions on converging courses; the DC-9 was descending out of 5,000 feet and the DC-10 was climbing through 3,800 feet. The controller had to repeat instructions to the DC-10 crew, as well as other crews. One crew informed ATC that their radio transmissions were weak. Douglas Flight Operation Letter AOL, C1-E60-HHK-L033 dated January 21, 1988, explained probable resultant damage to aircraft components when speed was reduced to buffet speeds indicated on the Cruise Buffet Onset Boundary Chart as presented in the DC-10 Aircraft Flight Manual. It noted that in some cases this buffeting resulted in wrinkled outboard elevator skins. It emphasized that speed reduction down to or near the clean configuration stalling speed greatly increased the chance of experiencing elevator damage.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.