Dallas – Toronto – Montreal

On June 2, 1983 at 07:20 PM, Dallas – Toronto – Montreal experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-9, operated by Air Canada, with the event recorded near Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Kentucky.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

46 people were known to be on board, 23 fatalities were recorded, 23 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 50.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 41, passenger fatalities: 23, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The aircraft departed Dallas on a regularly scheduled international passenger flight to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with an en route stop at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The flight left Dallas with 5 crew members and 41 passengers on board. About 1903, eastern daylight time, while en route at flight level 330 (about 33,000 feet m.s.l.), the cabin crew discovered smoke in the left aft lavatory. After attempting to extinguish the hidden fire and then contacting air traffic control (ATC) and declaring an emergency, the crew made an emergency descent and ATC vectored Flight 797 to the Greater Cincinnati International Airport, Covington, Kentucky. At 1920:09, eastern daylight time, Flight 797 landed on runway 27L at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport. As the pilot stopped the airplane, the airport fire department, which had been alerted by the tower to the fire on board the incoming plane, was in place and began firefighting operations. Also, as soon as the airplane stopped, the flight attendants and passengers opened the left and right forward doors, the left forward overwing exit, and the right forward and aft overwing exits. About 60 to 90 seconds after the exits were opened, a flash fire engulfed the airplane interior. While 18 passengers and 3 flight attendants exited through the forward doors and slides and the three open overwing exits to evacuate the airplane, the captain and first officer exited through their respective cockpit sliding windows. However, 23 passengers were not able to get out of the plane and died in the fire. The airplane was destroyed.

Aircraft reference details include registration C-FTLU, MSN 47196, year of manufacture 1968.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 39.0499°, -84.6652°.