and 41 passengers were also on board the DC-9 that day. Cruising at FL330 over Lousiville, Kentucky, the pilots heard three snaps in sudden succession. Looking behind Cameron's seat, Ouimet spotted three circuit breakers which had popped out. "Which one is that?", Ouimet asked. "DC bus...the left toilet...the left toilet flushing motor" Cameron replied. The Captain then attempted to reset the breakers, but they would not stay in. Ouimet asked if they should log it to which Cameron replied "I want to log it, yes. Somebody must have pushed a rag down the toilet or something...jammed it and it's over heated."

797 Burns on the Runway

door when he saw the flight attendant  at the front of the aircraft waving him hurriedly back to the flight deck. As he reached the flight deck, he saw that now the emergency AC and DC buses had lost power. The crew activated the emergency battery power and Ouimet said "I don't like what's happening, I think we'd better go down." Cameron then told the flight attendant s that they would be making an emergency descent and to prepare the cabin. Ouimet made a mayday call to Indianapolis as Cameron put the aircraft into it's descent. As the descent began, there was a noise from the aft of the aircraft and black smoke began to billow forward. Indianapolis instructed 797 to descend to 5000ft for vectors to Cincinnati. Due to the lose of electrical power, 797's transponder was not functioning so the controllers had no indication of the aircraft on radar. Smoke had now filled the cabin, passengers being supplied with wet towels to hold over their face, and into the flight deck, the door having been left open.

Burned Fuselage of 797

Both pilots donned their oxygen masks and Cameron put on goggles. Once 797 got closer to Cincinnati, the Approach controller was able to pick up the aircraft's target on radar. Because only emergency power was available, the pilots only had a back-up attitude indicator available to them. 797 was now 21 miles southeast of the airport descending through 8,000ft in solid cloud. The approach controller instructed 797 that it would receive a no gyro approach to runway 27L. 797 descended to 2,500ft and was able to get into clear conditions, though visibility was by no means good in the cockpit. Ouimet periodically opened his sliding window to vent smoke out. As the controller turned 797 onto final, he turned the runway lights up full. Ouimet exclaimed "OK...we have the airport!" to which approach replied "The tower has you in sight and you are cleared to land." Ouimet yelled back into the cabin for everyone to sit down and a few moments later 797 touched down smoothly. Because the electrical power had been lost, brake antiskid was inoperative and four main tires blew out. After stopping and shutting down, Ouimet immediately exited through his sliding window and assisted the Cameron out from his side. Almost all of the emergency doors were opened immediately and passengers began evacuating. Unfortunately, the smoke was so thick that some passengers could not find their way to the exits before flames engulfed the aircraft. 23 people were killed in the fire.
......Investigation of the toilet flush motor showed that it had not failed prior to the incident nor had it been damaged

internally by heat. Tests showed that, even if it had overheated, the magnitude of the heat would not be sufficient to ignite adjacent materials. Analysis of the motor wiring showed that it had been damaged by an already existing fire which caused the circuit breakers to trip. Study of the aircraft showed that the fire had begun behind the toilet's back wall, burning through the walls and allowing smoke to enter the toilet. This was the reason no fire was seen when the flight attendant  emptied the fire extinguisher in the toilet. As the fire burned down below the toilet, the heat was blow onto the generator cables and the circuits opened, taking them offline. The fire then continued to burn in the space between the toilet wall and the aircraft's outer skin, allowing the fire to move forward above the ceiling panels and enter through the ceiling and sidewall panels. Unfortunately, as soon as the aircraft stopped and the doors were opened, fresh oxygen was available to feed the fire and the aircraft was quickly consumed. The precise origin of the fire has never been determined.

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Date: 02 JUN 1983 Time: 19.20 EDT Type: McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 Operator: Air Canada Registration: C-FTLU Msn / C/n: 47196/278 Year built: 1968 Total airframe hrs: 36825 hours Cycles: 34987 cycles Engines: 2 Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7B Crew: 0 fatalities / 5 on board Passengers: 23 fatalities / 41 on board Total: 23 fatalities / 46 on board Airplane damage: Written off Location: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport, OH (CVG) (USA) Phase: Cruise/Ground Nature: International Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, TX (DFW) Destination airport: Toronto-Pearson International Airport, ON (YYZ) Flightnumber: 797 Remarks: At 16.25h CDT Flight 797 took off from Dallas for a flight to Montreal via Toronto. At 18.51h EDT, while cruising at FL330, the three aft lavatory flush motor circuit breakers tripped. The captain thought the plush motor had probably seized and waited for about eight minutes before (unsuccessfully) trying to reset them. At about the same time a strange odor was smelled at the aft of the plane. After finding out that the lavatory was full of smoke, a cabin attendant used the CO2 bottle to put out the fire (though only black smoke was seen coming out of the seams of the lavatory's walls). The first officer went over to take a look, but had to return to the cockpit to get his goggles. When returning to the cockpit at 19.07h, the 1st officer told the captain he thought it best to descend. Around that time the aircraft started developing electrical problems and a Mayday call was issued. Flight 797 stared to descend and contacted Cincinnati at 19.10h for an emergency. During the descent smoke began to fill the passenger cabin. The emergency landing was carried out on runway 27L at 19.20h. The Cincinnati fire services were not able to put out the fire, which gutted the fuselage. PROBABLE CAUSE: "A fire of undetermined origin, an underestimate of fire severity, and conflicting fire progress information provided to the captain. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the flight crew's delayed decision to institute an emergency descent." (NTSB/AAR-84/09)   Source: (also check out sources ued for every accident) NTSB/AAR-84/09 Accident Investigation Report NTSB/AAR-86/02 [PDF 3,3 MB] CVR transcript Air Canada Flight 797 - 02 JUN 1983 (inflight fire)