American Airlines Flight 107
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 · Accident: abrupt maneuver en route
From London Heathrow Airport (EGLL) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC96LA148
- 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
- Accident
- 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
McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- 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
- N1768D
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From London Heathrow Airport (EGLL), LONDON, UKTo John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK), Jamaica, NY
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Aircraft manuals › Inadequate
- Flightcrew › Autopilot, not understood
- Manufacturer › Information insufficient
- Pilot in command › Flight controls, improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Westerly, RI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The first officer (F/O) was making a descent from FL350 to FL240 in smooth air in VMC conditions with the autopilot (A/P) engaged. As the flight (flt) neared FL250, the captain became concerned that the airplane would not level off at FL240. He instructed the F/O to slow the rate of descent. The F/O attempted this by using the pitch thumbwheel on the A/P control panel. The captain then took control, attempted to overpower the A/P, and pulled back on the control yoke. With back pressure on the control yoke, he disengaged the A/P. With the reduced control column resistance after the A/P was disengaged, there was further excursion of the elevators to the up position. According to the flt data recorder, the airplane was subjected to a +2.28 G-load. A passenger in the aft lavatory suffered a fractured ankle. A 2nd passenger and 2 flt attendants received minor injuries. The MD-11 Flight Crew Operating Manual (FCOM) advised against attempting to overpower the A/P; however, this was contained under the title, 'SEVERE TURBULENCE AND/OR HEAVY RAIN INGESTION.' Each use of pitch thumbwheel interrupted the automatic level off, and the system would wait for 2 seconds after release of the thumbwheel before initiating a level off sequence again. Continued use of the thumbwheel precluded the A/P from performing the level off at FL240. The manufacturer has issued FCOM changes to warn pilots about the hazards of applying force to the control wheel or column while the A/P is engaged and adjusting the pitch thumbwheel during a level off.
Probable cause
insufficient information from the manufacturer in the airplane flight manual and flightcrew operating manual regarding the hazards of applying force to the control wheel or column while the autopilot is engaged and adjusting the pitch thumbwheel during a level off. Also causal was the flightcrew's lack of understanding of these items and the captain's improper decisions to overpower the engaged autopilot and then to disconnect the autopilot while holding back-pressure on the control yoke.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC96LA148
- Event ID
- 20001208X06344
- Case number
- NYC96LA148
- 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: local date, investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1996-07-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8c8e03e8ba38f4d8a4d3aeee480ad76b0a2077f6ad7abefdea0dfc6aeffe4797; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:48:42.479Z.