Bradley International Airport - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• March 4, 1953
  • Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando N4717N was being operated on a cargo flight from New York-Idlewild Field by Slick Airways. Bradley was experiencing light rain and a low ceiling at the time of the incident. After being cleared to land on Runway 06, the pilot reported problems intercepting the localizer, and continued to circle down to get under the weather. The plane struck trees approximately 1.6 miles (2.6 km) southwest of the airport, killing the crew of 2.

• July 16, 1971
  • Douglas C-47B N74844 of New England Propeller Service crashed on approach. The aircraft was on a ferry flight to Beverly Municipal Airport, Massachusetts when an engine lost power shortly after take-off due to water in the fuel. At the time of the accident, the aircraft was attempting to return to Bradley Airport.

• May 3, 1991
  • A Ryan International (wet-leased by Emery Worldwide) Boeing 727-100QC, N425EX, caught fire during take-off. The take-off was aborted and the three crew members escaped, while the aircraft was destroyed by the fire. The fire was determined to have started in the number 3 engine. It was determined that the 9th stage HP compressor had ruptured.

• November 12, 1995 at 12:55 am EST
  • An American Airlines MD-83, N566AA, crashed while trying to land at Bradley. American Airlines flight 1572 was substantially damaged when it impacted trees while on approach to runway 15 at Bradley International Airport. The airplane also impacted an instrument landing system antenna as it landed short of the runway on grassy, even terrain. The cause of the accident was determined to be the pilot's failure to reset the altimeter, however, severe weather may have played a factor. Nine of the 78 passengers were injured.

• January 21, 1998
  • A Continental Express ATR-42, N15827, had an emergency during roll on landing. During the landing roll, a fire erupted in the right engine. The airplane was stopped on the runway, the engines were shut down, and the occupants evacuated. The fire handles for both engines were pulled and both fire bottles on the right engine discharged. However, the fire on the right engine continued to burn. The airport fire services attended shortly afterward and extinguished the fire.

• January 6, 2003
  • An Continental Express Embraer ERJ-145LR, N16571, overran the runway at Cleveland Hopkins Airport after leaving Bradley. After touchdown, the flight crew was unable to stop the airplane on the runway. The airplane continued beyond the departure end, on extended runway centerline, and struck the ILS runway 6 localizer antenna. It came to rest with the nose about 600 feet (180 m) beyond the end of the runway. The nose landing gear had collapsed rearward and deformed the forward pressure bulkhead.

• October 14, 2004
  • An MK Airlines Boeing 747-200F registration 9G-MKJ, crashed on takeoff from Halifax Stanfield International Airport after departing Bradley International resulting in the death of all 7 crew members on board at the time. An investigation into the crash revealed that the flight crew had used the incorrect speeds and thrust setting during the take-off attempt, with incorrect take-off data being calculated when preparing the flight (incorrect V speed calculation, as the result of the crew re-using a lighter take-off weight of 240,000 kg from the aircraft's previous take-off at Bradley, instead of the correct weight of 353,000 kg). The official report blamed the company for serious non-conformances to flight and duty time, with no regulations or company rules governing maximum duty periods for loadmasters and ground engineers, resulting in increased potential for fatigue-induced errors

• June 22, 2010 at 8:20 pm EST
  • A Virgin Atlantic aircraft carrying approximately 300 passengers from London Heathrow Airport bound for Newark Liberty International Airport diverted to Bradley due to strong thunderstorms in the region. Failures of two auxiliary power units led to difficulties in keeping the grounded jet air conditioned. After refueling, the flight crew discovered no fuel had been transferred to the wing tanks, creating a load imbalance that could not be rectified before the flight crew would be required by regulation to end their work day. The incident was prolonged due to the amount of time needed to bring Customs and Border Protection staff onsite, and local policy that all passengers and baggage be brought into the FIS before passengers could begin customs clearance. All passengers were finally deplaned by 1:40 am, over five hours after arriving at Bradley. The incident attracted significant media attention and highlighted how the recently-implemented Airline Passengers Bill of Rights does not extend to international flights.

• October 29, 2011 at 1:30 pm EST
  • A JetBlue Airways A320 carrying about 150 passengers from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to Newark (EWR) was diverted to Bradley due to low visibility in Newark. After landing, the passengers were stranded on the aircraft for about 7 hours before a medical emergency on board forced the crew to deplane the passengers. This flight was one of ten experiencing delays in excess of the limits imposed by the Airline Passengers Bill of Rights at Bradley that day. Bradley officials cited 23 diversions, aggravated by the disruption of refueling due to power outages, as contributing to the delay.