The McDonnell Douglas MD-87 had reached takeoff speed when the captain pulled back on the control column for liftoff, but the airplane did not pitch up and was traveling too fast to stop before running off the departure end of Runway 36 at Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire, Texas, U.S.
Two of the 23 passengers and crewmembers were seriously injured and one received minor injuries in the Oct. 19, 2021, accident, which destroyed the airplane.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in its final report that one probable cause of the accident was the “jammed condition of both elevators” — a result of the airplane’s exposure to two episodes of high winds while parked for six months before the flight — that prevented the airplane from being rotated for takeoff.
A second probable cause was the failure of the pilots’ primary employer, Everts Air Cargo, to “maintain awareness of Boeing-issued, required updates for its manuals, which …
