Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Honolulu, Hawaii 96820
Sunday, November 7, 1999 21:20 HST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
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.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
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.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 11/7/1999 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 2120 |
| Event Time Zone | Hawaii Standard Time |
| Event City | HONOLULU |
| Event State | HAWAII |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 96820 |
| Event Date Year | 1999 |
| Event Date Month | 11 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | -- |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | -- |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1853 Hawaii Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | HNL |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 13 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 0 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | HST |
| Lighting Conditions | Night |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 4500 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 2600 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 24 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 19 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 49 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 10 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 5 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 12083 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Nov 22 1999 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 800 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | DMS |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jul 25 2002 9:28AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N602GC |
| NTSB Number | LAX00FA041 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | McDonnell Douglas |
| Aircraft Model | DC-10-30F |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | DC-10-30F |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 47923 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 575000 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 7 |
| Number of Engines | 3 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Nov 5 1999 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 15 |
| Airframe Hours | 98292 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | GEMINI AIR CARGO |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 44965 AVIATION DR STE 300 |
| Aircraft Owner City | DULLES |
| Aircraft Owner State | VA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | USA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 20166 |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | -- |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | -- |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | -- |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | G6OA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | -- |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | -- |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Non-scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | International |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Cargo |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Unknown |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | HNL |
| Departure City | HONOLULU |
| Departure State | HI |
| Departure Country | USA |
| Departure Time | 2115 |
| Departure Time Zone | HST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | NFFN |
| Destination City | NANDI FIJI |
| Destination State | -- |
| Destination Country | FJ |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Climb |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | No |
| Date of most recent change to record | May 30 2002 2:35PM |
| User who most recently changed record | COOS |
| Since inspection or accident | Last Inspection |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |