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Continental Airlines Boeing 737-130 incident

15 Mar 1993 · Newark, NJ, United States

Boeing 737-130 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb

From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC93IA059
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 737-130

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
N14212
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)To Piedmont Triad International Airport (GSO), Greensboro, NC
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
None

Cause areas

  • Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
  • Flt control syst, aileron control cable/rod › Failure, total
  • Flt control syst, aileron control cable/rod › Worn
  • Manufacturer › Procedure inadequate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Newark, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

IMMEDIATELY AFTER LIFT-OFF, THE AIRPLANE ROLLED LEFT, BUT THE PILOT CONTROLLED THE ROLL WITH RIGHT AILERON. THE LEFT AILERON WAS OBSERVED IN A FULL UP POSITION. THE CAPTAIN ELECTED TO RETURN & LAND AT THE AIRPORT. WITH SNOW ON THE RUN- WAY, HE DECIDED TO USE 15 DEGREE WING FLAPS UNTIL 300', THEN EXTEND THE FLAPS TO 30 DEGREES. HE SAID HE NEEDED FULL RIGHT AILERON TO MAINTAIN CONTROL ONCE THE FLAPS WERE EXTENDED TO 30 DEGREES. AN EXAM REVEALED THE LEFT 'DOWN' AILERON CABLE (FOR DOWN MOVEMENT) HAD BROKEN. ALSO, THE LEFT 'UP' AILERON CABLE & BOTH RIGHT AILERON CABLES WERE WORN & WERE REPLACED. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED NUMEROUS WORN STRANDS IN THE CABLES. A 'C' CHECK/INSPECTION OF THE AILERON CABLES HAD BEEN ACCOMPLISHED ON 12/20/92 (580 FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE INCIDENT) VIA PROCEDURES. PROCEDURES LACKED DETAILS & NO SERVICE LIFE WAS ESTABLISHED FOR AILERON CONTROL CABLES. THE 1968 MODEL AIRPLANE HAD ABOUT 59,000 FLIGHT HOURS; NO RECORD OF PREVIOUS CABLE REPLACEMENT WAS FOUND.

Probable cause

INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE/INSPECTION BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, THE MANUFACTURER'S INADEQUATE INSPECTION AND/OR REPLACEMENT PROCEDURES FOR THE AILERON CABLES, AND SUBSEQUENT FAILURE OF THE 'DOWN' AILERON CONTROL CABLE DUE TO WEAR.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC93IA059
Event ID
20001211X12035
Case number
NYC93IA059
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, damage. 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: 1d2f99d4cb16c37a6914916d53f29b456c106387fc83a8e9a496b4c4e52e93c2; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:40:14.135Z.