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Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105
1985 aviation accident / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that crashed into an open field in Oak Creek, Wisconsin shortly after taking off from General Mitchell International Airport on September 6, 1985. The airplane, a Douglas DC-9, was carrying 31 passengers and crew. None of them survived the crash.
![]() A Midwest Express Airlines Douglas DC-9-14 identical to the aircraft involved in the crash. | |
Accident | |
---|---|
Date | September 6, 1985 |
Summary | Uncontained engine failure on take-off and loss of control |
Site | Near General Mitchell International Airport, Milwaukee, Wisconsin United States 42°55′38.36″N 87°54′6″W |
Aircraft | |
Aircraft type | Douglas DC-9-14 |
Operator | Midwest Express Airlines |
IATA flight No. | YX105 |
ICAO flight No. | MEP105 |
Call sign | MIDEX 105 |
Registration | N100ME |
Flight origin | Dane County Regional Airport, Madison, Wisconsin |
Stopover | General Mitchell Int'l Airport, Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Destination | Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Int'l Airport, Atlanta, Georgia |
Occupants | 31 |
Passengers | 27 |
Crew | 4 |
Fatalities | 31 |
Survivors | 0 |
Multiple eyewitnesses reported that the plane was on fire shortly after it took off from the airport. The fire was caused due to a failure on the right engine where one of its removable sleeve spacers detached. The removable sleeve spacer suffered metal fatigue that caused the engine to explode.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the investigation team who was responsible for the investigation of the crash, concluded that despite the plane suffering engine failure, it was still controllable, and instead the response of the crew to the failure was the main cause of the accident. The crew failed to properly control the plane during the emergency. Breakdown of the crew's coordination also contributed to the crash.[1]