Flight 17 · Boeing 737-2H4
Boeing 737-2H4 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT) to Dallas Love Field (DAL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94IA070
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Incident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Boeing 737-2H4
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N53SW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT)To Dallas Love Field (DAL), Dallas, TX
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 121: Air Carrier
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff · roll/run
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Landing gear, axle › Separation
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ONE OF TWO LEFT MAIN WHEELS SEPARATED. THE SUBSEQUENT LANDING WAS UNEVENTFUL. THE TIRE AND WHEEL REMAINED INTACT. THE AXLE NUT WAS FOUND WITH THE LOCKING RETAINER RING INSTALLED IN THE GROOVE ON THE NUT. EVIDENCE COLLECTED BY THE MANUFACTURER INDICATED THE RETAINER NUT SPUN OFF OF THE AXLE WITH THE ROTATION OF THE WHEEL. ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURER, 'THIS CONDITION COULD ONLY OCCUR IF THE LOCKING CAPABILITY OF THE RETAINING RING WAS LOST DUE TO THE RETAINING RING NOT FULLY SEATED.' THE MANUFACTURER MEASURED THE THREAD DIMENSIONS OF THE INNER CYLINDER AXLES AND RETAINER NUTS. THREADS ON BOTH AXLES AND RETAINER NUTS WERE BEYOND THE MANUFACTURER'S WEAR LIMITS. ON THE INCIDENT AXLE, THREAD ENGAGEMENT MEASUREMENT (EXCLUDING THE DAMAGED AREA) FOR THE AXLE WAS AT THE MANUFACTURER'S WEAR LIMIT. ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURER, WEAR DID NOT COMPROMISE THE CAPABILITY OF THE NUT AND AXLE. THEIR CROSS SECTION OF THE NUT 'DID NOT EXHIBIT ENOUGH DEFORMATION TO SUPPORT MIGRATION OF THE NUT OFF THE AXLE.'
Probable cause
WAS THE LANDING GEAR SEPARATION DUE TO AN UNDETERMINED CAUSE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94IA070
- Event ID
- 20001206X00622
- Case number
- FTW94IA070
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: befb2c5ca36de60712ee69b5baff1aa29cce86ebe840a7551d4ca01fdf21ece2; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:23:32.809Z.