This report explains the accident involving a Douglas DC-8-63, operated by ABX Air Inc. (Airborne Express), that impacted mountainous terrain near Narrows, Virginia, while on a post-modification functional evaluation flight on December 22, 1996. Safety issues in the report include airplane stall recovery procedures for functional evaluation flights, stall warning systems, fidelity of the ABX DC-8 flight training simulator, guidelines and limitations for conducting functional evaluation flights, and Federal Aviation Administration surveillance of air carrier functional evaluation flight programs. Recommendations concerning these issues were made to the Federal Aviation Administration.

NTSB/AAR-97/05. PB97-910405. Notation 6822A.