The crash of Delta Flight 191 killed 137 people and directly drove major improvements in microburst forecasting and wind shear training for U.S. aviation.
Key Facts
- Date
- August 2, 1985
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
- Total occupants
- 163 people
- Deaths (occupants)
- 136 people
- Ground fatality
- 1 car driver killed on impact
- Injured
- 25 people
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The flight crew chose to continue approach through an active thunderstorm near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Neither adequate procedures for recognizing and escaping microbursts nor sufficient hazard information about wind shear had been established, leaving the crew without the tools to identify or avoid the danger ahead.
On August 2, 1985, Flight 191 encountered a microburst while on final approach to DFW. The sudden wind shear caused the Lockheed L-1011 to strike the ground more than a mile short of the runway, collide with a car and two water tanks, and disintegrate, killing 136 of the 163 occupants and the driver of the struck vehicle.
The NTSB investigation prompted significant advances in microburst detection technology and mandatory wind shear training for flight crews. By 1994, when USAir Flight 1016 crashed under similar conditions, it was the only subsequent microburst-induced commercial fixed-wing accident in the United States, reflecting the lasting safety improvements attributable to the Flight 191 disaster.