Tower Air Flight 69
Boeing 747-212B · Incident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid on approach
From Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (VABB) to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (EHAM)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96IA039
- 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 747-212B
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747
- 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
- N616FF
- Operator
- Tower Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (VABB), BombayTo Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (EHAM)
- 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Amsterdam, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The captain was flying the aircraft as the flight made a ILS approach to runway 19R. During the landing flare a fog bank rolled over the runway and he lost sight of the runway. A go-around was initiated. The digital flight data recorder showed that as the go-around was initiated the roll attitude of the aircraft increased from wings level to 24 degrees right wing down over 5 seconds. The radio altimeter increased from 1.8 feet to 29.2 feet over the same 5 second period. Recorded radar data showed the aircraft veered off to the right and flew a course parallel to the runway during the go-around. The flight returned for another approach and after an uneventful approach and landing on runway 19R, parked at the gate. After parking at the gate, the flight crew was informed by ground personnel that the No. 4 engine nacelle and right wing tip were damaged. Debris from the No. 4 engine nacelle was found on the right side of the runway, about 1400 meters from the threshold. No scrape marks were found on the runway.
Probable cause
The failure of the captain to maintain a level wings attitude during a go-around resulting in the right wing dragging on the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96IA039
- Event ID
- 20001207X05049
- Case number
- MIA96IA039
- 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: 15dc05ce01a0a17a73f3045c0283d780db1dd057a0701f8a0aa419a8708f2590; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:55:50.583Z.