Delta Airlines Flight 148
Boeing 767-332ER · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC96IA131
- 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 767-332ER
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 767
- 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
- N185DN
- Operator
- Delta Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)To Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO), Rome, ITALY
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Flt control syst, aileron control cable/rod › Failure, total
- Manufacturer › Clearance, inadequate
- Manufacturer › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after departure, the flightcrew heard a loud pop or crack, and the airplane made an uncommanded roll to the left. In addition, the right generator off light illuminated. By holding continuous input to the control yoke, the airplane was returned to a wings-level attitude, and returned for an overweight landing without incident. Examination of the airplane revealed that one of two aileron cables on the right side aileron control had been severed by electrical arcing from the right engine generator feed line. No evidence of contact between the generator feed cable and the aileron cable was found. However, a pin hole about 1/8 inch in diameter was found on the plastic sheath of the generator feed cable in the area where the aileron cable passed nearby. The Boeing drawing used for production states to maintain a 1.0 inch minimum clearance between the aileron cable and the generator feed line. When the aileron cable was replaced and tensioned on the incident airplane, the clearance between the aileron cable and generator feed line was measured at 3/16 inch.
Probable cause
the improper installation of the generator feed cable by the manufacturer, which resulted in a severed aileron cable due to arcing between the generator feed cable and aileron cable.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC96IA131
- Event ID
- 20001208X06082
- Case number
- NYC96IA131
- 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: 54c7ed5b8f9d2000537063abcc0857d9f690b333e957e48fc08711e81c4499b0; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:49:18.523Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N185DN; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.