MKC89LA161
1989-07-18 · DES MOINES, Iowa, United States · Minor · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport DSM
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AND RUNWAY ALIGNMENT DURING THE LANDING. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: ADVERSE WEATHER/RUNWAY/TERRAIN CONDITIONS, FAILURE OF THE LOCAL CONTROLLER TO WARN THE PILOT OF POSSIBLE HYDROPLANING CONDITIONS, THE PILOT'S DECISION NOT TO USE REVERSE THRUST, AND RUNWAY LIGHT ABUTMENTS.
Factual narrative
THE PIC RPRTD THAT DURING AN IFR ARRIVAL TO THE DES MOINES INTL ARPT, HE DETECTED WHAT SEEMED TO BE MICROBURSTS & ELECTED TO MAKE A MISSED APCH. DURING A 2ND APCH (ILS RWY 30R APCH), WX CONDITIONS WERE BETTER & TOWER PSNL RPRTD ONLY LIGHT RAIN & WINDS, SO HE CONTINUED FOR A LANDING. THE APCH & TOUCHDOWN WERE NORMAL & REVERSE THRUST WAS NOT USED. HOWEVER, THE PLT RPRTD THAT WHEN HE APPLIED BRAKES, HE REALIZED THE ACFT WAS HYROPLANING. SOON THEREAFTER, IT ANGLED OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RWY, THOUGH IT WAS BEING STEERED TO THE LEFT. THE ACFT THEN ENCTRD SOFT MUD, HIT 2 LANDING LIGHT ABUTMENTS & WAS DAMAGED. THE RWY WAS RPRTD TO SLOPE DOWNWARD TOWARD THE MIDPOINT. THE PLT STATED THAT A FEW HRS LATER, WATER WAS STILL STANDING IN LOW POINTS ON THE RWY, THOUGH RAIN HAD STOPPED FALLING. ALSO, HE STATED THE LOCAL CONTROLLER HAD NOT WARNED HIM OF POSSIBLE HYDROPLANING THOUGH AT LEAST 2 INCHES OF RAIN HAD FALLEN IN A SHORT PERIOD BEFORE THE PLANE HAD LANDED. THE 0244 CDT WIND WAS RPRTD TO BE FROM 200 DEG AT 9 KTS. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_MKC89LA161.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (microburst). All research papers
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Optimal recovery from microburst wind shear
The flight path of a twin-jet transport aircraft is optimized in a microburst encounter during approach to landing. The objective is to execute an escape maneuver that maintains safe ground clearance …
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Performance limits for optimal microburst encounter
An effort has been made to ascertain the envelope-edges for uneventful aircraft penetrations of microburst windshears on the basis of optimal aircraft control strategies.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Aircraft performance in a JAWS microburst
Attention is given to the detailed features of a servere microburst event, the flight behavior of a 727 airliner in such an event as predicted by a numerical simulation, and several low level wind she…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Paper Assessment of microburst models for downdraft estimation
The effectiveness of three microburst models in estimating the downdraft from horizontal velocity measurements is assessed. The development of the models and their characteristics are discussed.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM) Airborne derivation of microburst alerts from ground-based Terminal Doppler Weather Radar information: A flight evaluation
An element of the NASA/FAA windshear program is the integration of ground-based microburst information on the flight deck, to support airborne windshear alerting and microburst avoidance.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Technical Memorandum (TM) A simple, analytical, axisymmetric microburst model for downdraft estimation
A simple analytical microburst model was developed for use in estimating vertical winds from horizontal wind measurements.