What 1989 crash in New York followed the failure of a United Airlines buyout and is called the Friday the 13th mini-crash?

The 1989 New York crash that followed the failure of a United Airlines buyout was called the Friday the 13th mini-crash.

On Friday, 13 October 1989, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 190.58 points, or about 6.9 percent. The decline was linked partly to news that a leveraged buyout of United Airlines had collapsed, raising concern about highly indebted takeover deals.

The crash also reflected broader market unease and computerized trading. Although the loss was severe, it was much smaller than the 22.6 percent one-day fall during Black Monday in 1987. U.S. markets recovered much of the decline relatively quickly.

The event illustrates how a corporate-finance announcement can interact with existing market fragility. Its nickname can cause confusion with Black Friday, which usually refers to the U.S. gold panic of 1869, while “Friday the 13th” identifies this specific 1989 episode.