On October 19, 2021, at about 10:00 am central daylight time, a Boeing MD-87, N987AK, operated by 987 Investments LLC, overran the departure end of runway 36 at Houston Executive Airport (TME), Brookshire, Texas, after the crew executed a rejected takeoff. Of the 23 passengers and crew onboard the airplane, two passengers received serious injuries and one received minor injuries. A postcrash fire ensued, and the airplane was destroyed. The airplane was operating as a 14 Code of Federal Regulation Part 91 flight from TME to Laurence G. Hanscom Field Airport (BED), Boston, Massachusetts.
We determined the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The jammed condition of both elevators, which resulted from exposure to localized, dynamic high wind while the airplane was parked and prevented the airplane from rotating during the takeoff roll. Also causal was the failure of Everts Air Cargo, the pilots’ primary employer, to maintain awareness of Boeing-issued, required updates for its manuals, which resulted in the pilots not receiving the procedures and training that addressed the requirement to visually verify during the preflight checks that the elevators are not jammed.
Download the final report from CAROL.
