Date:	Sunday 17 February 1991
Time:	00:19
Type:	McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15RC
Owner/operator:	Ryan International Airlines
Registration:	N565PC
MSN:	47240/346
Year of manufacture:	1968
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7B
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport, OH (CLE) -   United States of America
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Cargo
Departure airport:	Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport, OH (CLE/KCLE)
Destination airport:	Indianapolis International Airport, IN (IND/KIND)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
Ryan Flight 590 landed at Cleveland at 23:44 and taxied to the mail ramp. Snow (dry and blowing) fell throughout the 35 minutes that the DC-9 was on the ground. The de-icing service was not requested during this period. Clearance to taxi to runway 23 was received at 00:09. Takeoff clearance was given at 00:18.
The aircraft stalled during takeoff and rolled 90° at 50-100 feet. The airplane then suffered compressor stalls, the left wing contacted the runway and the aircraft cart wheeled. The DC-9 came to rest inverted 6500 feet from the threshold.

PROBABLE CAUSE: "The failure of the flight crew to detect and remove ice contamination on the airplane's wings, which was largely a result of a lack of appropriate response by the Federal Aviation Administration, Douglas Aircraft Company, and Ryan International Airlines to the known effect that a minute amount of contamination has on the stall characteristics of the DC-9 series 10 airplane. The ice contamination led to wing stall and loss of control during the attempted takeoff."

Airport Operations Vol.19, No.6 (Nov/Dec 1993) / Flight Safety Foundation
ICAO Adrep 2/93 (#45)
ICAO Adrep 4/94 (#99)
NTSB/AAR-91/09

photo (c) Carl Waldenmaier, via Werner Fischdick; San Francisco-International Airport, CA (SFO); October 1975

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