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United Airlines Flight 2885 was a scheduled cargo flight from Cleveland to Los Angeles, with stopover in Detroit. On January 11, 1983, a DC-8 operating Flight 2885 crashed after take-off from Detroit, killing all 3 crew. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation determined that the cause for the crash was pilot error.[1]

United Airlines Flight 2885

N8053U, the aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date	January 11, 1983 (1983-01-11)
Summary	Crashed after takeoff due to pilot error
Site	Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Romulus, Michigan, United States 42°12′42.08″N 83°22′12.11″W
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Douglas DC-8F-54
Operator	United Airlines
IATA flight No.	UA2885
ICAO flight No.	UAL2885
Call sign	UNITED 2885
Registration	N8053U
Flight origin	Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
Stopover	Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
Destination	Los Angeles International Airport
Occupants	3
Passengers	0
Crew	3
Fatalities	3
Survivors	0

Chronology

The aircraft involved in the accident, a 14-year-old Douglas DC-8F-54, registration N8053U,[2] departed Detroit Metropolitan Airport at 22:15 CST on January 10, 1983, operating United Airlines Flight 2894 bound for Cleveland, Ohio.[3] At Cleveland, the flight became United 2885; the DC-8 departed Cleveland at 01:15 on January 11. It arrived at Detroit airport at 01:52; after a cargo turnaround and refueling, the aircraft began its takeoff roll at 02:51.[3] After taking off, the witnesses described that the nose of the aircraft pitched up to an unusually high position, causing temporary engine surges (witnesses on the ground reported occasional fire eruptions from the engines);[4] soon after, the DC-8 began a gradual right roll, eventually entering an upset condition. As the wings reached an almost 90-degree bank, and at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet (300 m), the aircraft stalled and fell to the ground, exploding on impact.[3]

The three crew members were Captain William S. Todd (55); First Officer James G. Day (51); and Flight Engineer Robert E. Lee (50). All three were killed.

Causes

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation revealed that, during the cargo turnaround at Detroit, the pilots had a conversation in the cockpit; at one point, the captain asked the first officer if he would like to trade seats with the flight engineer and allow him to perform the takeoff, contrary to both United Airlines and Federal Aviation Administration rules.[3][4] The first officer accepted the proposition; the flight engineer did express his doubts, but eventually relented and switched seats.[3]

As the investigators found, the flight engineer had entered a DC-8 first officer upgrade training in June 1979; however, the instructors found his abilities less than adequate and the training was terminated two months later.[3] The flight engineer resumed his first officer training in February 1980, this time for the Boeing 737; while improving, his abilities were still inadequate—as his instructor stated, "his attitude could not be better and he is a very hard worker, however, he has not made normal progress in his first full year as a first officer."[3] After several failed en-route and proficiency checks, the flight engineer made an agreement not to bid anymore for pilot vacancies and remain a flight engineer for the balance of his career.[3]

The direct reason for an abnormally nose-up position was found to be an excessively high stabilizer trim setting (7.5 units airplane nose-up);[3] likely, in the confusion due to switching seats, the pilots failed to reset the trim setting while performing takeoff checklists.[4] (It was reported the first officer made this mistake occasionally.[3]) Taking off at night, with no visual references, the inexperienced flight engineer did not manage to correct the attitude in time, leading to engine surges, aircraft banking and eventually an upset and an unrecoverable stall. It is not known why the captain did not manage to correct the situation. One possibility is that the flight engineer froze on the controls as he put the DC-8 into a gradual bank, and the opposite inputs from the captain had no effect on the movement of the stabilizer.[3] The captain's decision to allow the flight engineer to perform the takeoff was considered a contributing factor in the accident.[3][4]

During an investigation, other United pilots anonymously admitted that swapping seats and flight engineers performing takeoffs and/or landings, while a rare occurrence, were not unheard of on ferry or cargo flights.[3]

See also

• Northwest Airlines Flight 188, where the pilots overflew their destination by over a hundred miles due to a lack of attention
• Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701, a crash where the pilots decided to take the aircraft to its maximum altitude and subsequently crashed
• Aeroflot Flight 593, a crash in which the pilots let a minor fly the aircraft
• Aeroflot Flight 6502, a crash in which the pilots bet they could land blind

References

External links

• Aviation Safety Network: N8053 at Detroit Airport, 11 January 1983

На других языках

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[de] United-Airlines-Flug 2885

Auf dem inländischen amerikanischen Linienfrachtflug United-Airlines-Flug 2885 (Flugnummer IATA: UA2885, ICAO: UAL2885, Funkrufzeichen: UNITED 2885) von Cleveland nach Los Angeles über Detroit verunglückte am 11. Januar 1983 eine Douglas DC-8F-54 „Jet Trader“ der United Airlines, als die Piloten versuchten, die vertrimmte Maschine nach der Zwischenlandung auf dem Flughafen Detroit zu starten. Bei dem Unfall kamen alle drei Insassen der Maschine ums Leben.

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- [en] United Airlines Flight 2885

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[it] Volo United Airlines 2885

Il volo United Airlines 2885 era un volo cargo partito da Cleveland a Los Angeles, con scalo a Detroit. L'11 gennaio 1983 si schiantò poco dopo il decollo da Detroit uccidendo tutti e 3 i membri dell'equipaggio. L'indagine del National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stabilì che la causa dell'incidente era da imputarsi a un errore del pilota.[1]

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