Houston - New Orleans

On August 23, 1990 at 05:20 PM, Houston - New Orleans experienced a crash involving Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I, operated by Rowan Drilling Company Marine, with the event recorded near Houston-George Bush-Intercontinental Texas.

The flight was categorized as executive/corporate/business and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

15 people were known to be on board, 3 fatalities were recorded, 12 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 20.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 2, passengers on board: 13, passenger fatalities: 1, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The passengers and witnesses reported that during takeoff, the aircraft yawed both left and right after lift-off. It then veered to the left and contacted the ground in a left wing low attitude between the runway and a parallel taxiway. An investigation revealed evidence that the left engine had sustained a partial loss of power due to a malfunctioning fuel pump. There were indications the power loss was not sufficient to trigger or allow completion of the autofeathering operation of the left propeller. Feathering of the left propeller had been manually initiated, but the propeller had not reached the feather position before impact. Manual feathering operation required the feathering pump button be held about 5 sec. 'V' speeds (kias) for this flight were: V1 92, VR 99, V2 110, normal VMCA (dead engine propeller feathered, flaps set for takeoff and aircraft out of ground effect) 101, VMCA (dead engine propeller unfeathered/windmilling and flaps set for takeoff) 127 knots. Exam of the actuators revealed the gear was retracted and the flaps were set for takeoff. Both pilots and a passenger who was seating on the jumpseat were killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration N80RD, MSN 198, year of manufacture 1969.