Arrow Air Flight 1285R

Arrow Air Flight 1285R

Wreckage from Arrow Air Flight 1285R in storage at a Gander Airport hangar on 16 December 1985
Accident
Date	12 December 1985
Summary	Atmospheric icing and overloading leading to stall (CASB Report).
Site	Gander International Airport, Newfoundland, Canada 48°54′43″N 54°34′27″W / 48.91194°N 54.57417°W / 48.91194; -54.57417
Aircraft
Aircraft type	McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63CF
Operator	Arrow Air
IATA flight No.	MF1285R
Registration	N950JW
Flight origin	Cairo International Airport, Egypt
1st stopover	Cologne Bonn Airport, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Last stopover	Gander International Airport, Newfoundland, Canada
Destination	Campbell Army Airfield, Kentucky, United States
Occupants	256
Passengers	248
Crew	8
Fatalities	256
Survivors	0

Gander 

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Location in Canada

Gander

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Location in Newfoundland

Arrow Air Flight 1285R was an international charter flight carrying U.S. Army personnel from Cairo, Egypt, to their home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, via Cologne, West Germany, and Gander, Newfoundland.^[1] On the morning of Thursday, 12 December 1985, shortly after takeoff from Gander International Airport en route to Fort Campbell, the McDonnell Douglas DC-8 serving the flight stalled, crashed, and burned about half a mile from the runway, killing all 248 passengers and 8 crew members on board.^[2] As of 2024^[update], it is the deadliest aviation accident to occur on Canadian soil.^[3] At the time of the crash, it was the deadliest aviation accident involving a DC-8; as of 2024^[update], it is the second-deadliest, behind the crash of Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 nearly six years later.^[3]

The accident was investigated by the Canadian Aviation Safety Board (CASB), which determined that the probable cause of the crash was the aircraft's unexpectedly high drag and reduced lift condition, most likely due to ice contamination on the wings' leading edges and upper surfaces, as well as underestimated onboard weight.^[4] A minority report stated that the accident could have been caused by an onboard explosion of unknown origin before impact, with one of these dissenting investigators later telling a United States congressional committee that a thin layer of ice could not bring down the aircraft.^[5][6] The dissenting report led to delays in changes to de-icing procedures, and a thin layer of ice caused the deadly crash of Air Ontario Flight 1363 in Canada in 1989.

In response to lack of confidence in accident investigations by the CASB, the Government of Canada shut the board down in 1990, replacing it with an independent, multi-modal investigative agency – the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.^{[citation needed]}