Air Canada Flight 797 was an international passenger flight operating from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Montréal–Dorval International Airport, with an intermediate stop at Toronto International Airport.
On 2 June 1983, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the service developed an in-flight fire in air around the rear lavatory that spread between the outer skin and the inner decor panels, filling the plane with toxic smoke. The spreading fire also burned through crucial electrical cables that disabled most of the instrumentation in the cockpit, forcing the plane to divert to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Ninety seconds after the plane landed and the doors were opened, the heat of the fire and fresh oxygen from the open exit doors created a backdraft, and the plane's interior immediately became engulfed in flames, killing 23 passengershalf of the people on boardwho were unable to evacuate the aircraft.
The accident became a watershed for global aviation regulations, which were changed in the aftermath of the accident to make aircraft safer. New requirements to install smoke detectors in lavatories, strip lights marking paths to exit doors, and increased firefighting training and equipment for crew became standard across the industry, while regulations regarding evacuation were also updated. Since the accident, it has become mandatory for aircraft manufacturers to prove their aircraft could be evacuated within 90 seconds of the commencement of an evacuation, and passengers seated in overwing exits are now instructed to assist in an emergency.
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, MSN 47196, originally registered as CF-TLU, that was manufactured on 22 March 1968 and was delivered to Air Canada on 7 April. It had logged 36,825 airframe hours and 34,987 takeoff and landing cycles and was powered by two Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7B turbofan engines.
Flight and crew
At 16:25 central daylight time (21:25 UTC)