ABX Air (a subsidiary of Airborne Express) purchased the aircraft on June 17, 1996, more than six months before the accident.

It underwent a major overhaul and was delivered to ABX Air on December 15 the same year, just a week before the accident.

[2]: 4–5 [6] The captain who was the pilot flying (though acting as a co-pilot) was 37-year-old William "Keith" Leming, who had worked for Airborne Express since 1991 and had logged 8,426 flight hours, with 1,509 of them on the DC-8.

[6][9] Initially, Flight 827 had been scheduled to depart from Piedmont Triad International Airport on December 16, but was delayed due to maintenance.

Flight 827 finally departed at 17:40 Eastern Standard Time (EST) at nighttime on December 22, 1996, after being delayed due to additional maintenance.

[2]: 3  At 18:09, Air Traffic Control (ATC) asked the flight if they had initiated an emergency descent, with captain Avery replying, "yes sir."

Three seconds later at 18:09:38, the aircraft crashed into a mountain travelling over 240 knots (280 mph; 440 km/h) in a nose-down wings-down position of 26 and 52 degrees, respectively.

[2]: 3–4 [3] The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched an investigation into the accident and arrived at the crash site the same day.

[16] The aircraft's flight controls were destroyed in the crash, but the NTSB recovered two trim jackscrews from the horizontal stabilizer.

[2]: 14 In 1991, another Airborne Express DC-8 entered a real stall during an FEF, but the flight crew was able to recover and test continued with no further incidents.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a revised stall recovery procedure to Airborne Express, which they agreed to incorporate.

The reported surface weather at Mercer County Airport in Bluefield stated that visibility was two miles.

The NTSB noted that since both pilots were captains, had manager positions at the airline, and had similar backgrounds, they would have difficulty challenging each other because of a lack of command authority.

Airborne Express' procedures required the aircraft to be trimmed 1.5 knots (1.7 mph; 2.8 km/h) before the stall speed.

The NTSB concluded that the captain Lemming's incorrect trimming of the horizontal stabilizer was not a factor in the accident.

[2]: 34 The NTSB examined N827AX's maintenance records and reviewed Airborne Express' procedures for testing the stall warning system, but could not determine why the stick shaker was inoperative during the accident flight.

The NTSB also stated that an angle of attack display on the flight deck could have helped the crew situational awareness.

The fact that the crew lacked a visual horizon at nighttime was another factor due to the aircraft being in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) from the time the stall maneuver was performed until impact.

The "probable cause" section stated the following: The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable causes of this accident were the inappropriate control inputs applied by the flying pilot during a stall recovery attempt, the failure of the nonflying pilot-in-command to recognize, address, and correct these inappropriate control inputs, and the failure of ABX to establish a formal functional evaluation flight program that included adequate program guidelines, requirements and pilot training for performance of these flights.

Another cause was Airborne Express failing to set up a proper program for FEFs, resulting in inadequate training.

[2] The NTSB also reiterated a previous recommendation regarding the angle of attack following the crash of American Airlines Flight 965 on December 20, 1995: Require that all transport-category aircraft present pilots with angle of attack information in a visual format, and that all air carriers train their pilots to use the information to obtain maximum possible climb performance.

[22] Brian Scully's sister, Maureen DeMarco, was killed in the crash of Comair Flight 3272 on January 9, 1997.

[24] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Transportation Safety Board.