United Airlines Flight 1487
Boeing B-737-200 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF) to Denver International Airport (DEN)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95IA049
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Boeing B-737-200
- 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
- N988UA
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Springfield Branson National Airport (SGF), MOTo Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, CO
- 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
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Springfield, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL THE LEFT OUTBOARD MAIN WHEEL SEPARATED FROM THE AIRPLANE AXLE. SIX RECOVERED ROLLER BEARINGS HAD SEVERELY DAMAGED ROLLING SURFACES; HOWEVER, ALL THE ROLLER ENDS WERE RELATIVELY FREE OF SCUFFING DAMAGE, WHICH INDICATED ADEQUATE LUBRICATION AND BEARING AXLE PRELOAD. THERE WAS NO INDICATION OF DEFECTS IN THE KEYWAY. THE LEFT HAND AXLE OUTBOARD END HAD SEVERE RESULTANT DAMAGE CONSISTENT WITH A PRIMARY OUTBOARD WHEEL BEARING FAILURE. THE MODE OF THE FAILURE COULD NOT BE DETERMINED. THE AXLE NUT WASHER AND LOCK RING WERE NEVER RECOVERED; HOWEVER, THERE IS PHYSICAL EVIDENCE THAT THEY WERE INSTALLED AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF EITHER THE INBOARD OR THE OUTBOARD WHEEL BEARING ASSEMBLY DUE TO UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95IA049
- Event ID
- 20001206X02589
- Case number
- FTW95IA049
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: e4ca06be880cc9f3560971b056fdfe4bd6ccbb909abcf050b2b75f99fdcda422; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:06:11.099Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N988UA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, UALA.