Accident Details
Probable Cause and Findings
THE FAILURE OF THE FLIGHTCREW TO COMPLY WITH CHECKLIST PROCEDURES TO TURN ON AN OPERABLE PITOT/STATIC HEAT SYSTEM, RESULTING IN ICE AND/OR SNOW BLOCKAGE OF THE PITOT TUBES THAT PRODUCED ERRONEOUS AIRSPEED INDICATIONS, AND THE FLIGHTCREW'S UNTIMELY RESPONSE TO ANOMALOUS AIRSPEED INDICATIONS WITH THE CONSEQUENT REJECTION OF TAKEOFF AT AN ACTUAL SPEED OF 5 KNOTS ABOVE V1. (NTSB REPORT AAR-95/01)
Aircraft Information
Registered Owner (Historical)
Analysis
On March 2, 1994, at 1758 eastern standard time, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, N18835, operated by Continental Airlines as flight 795, sustained substantial damage during an aborted takeoff at La Guardia Airport in Flushing, New York (LGA). Of the 116 persons on board the airplane, two were flight crewmembers, four were cabin crewmembers, and 110 were passengers. There were seven minor injuries during the accident sequence and evacuation.
A special weather observation, made about 5 minutes after the accident, found the weather as drifting snow conditions, with an indefinite ceiling at 500 feet, obscured, with the wind out of 050 at 23 knots.
The flight was to have been from LGA to Denver Stapleton International Airport, Colorado (DEN). During the attempted takeoff on runway 13, the first officer was at the controls. The captain, seeing that the airspeed indication was not increasing normally, but remained low, elected to abort by pulling back on the throttles, entering reverse thrust , and taking control of the airplane. The airplane came to rest pitched downward, so that the nose of the airplane rested on a mud flat of the Flushing Bay Tidal, which at the time of the accident, was above the waterline.
Data Source
Data provided by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). For more information on this event, visit the NTSB Records Search website. NTSB# DCA94MA038