Trans Aereos Mercan Pan Am Boeing 707-324C accident
Boeing 707-324C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Antonio Roldán Betancur Airport (SKLC)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92FA115
- 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
Boeing 707-324C
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 707
- 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
- HK360
- Operator
- Trans Aereos Mercan Pan Am
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Antonio Roldán Betancur Airport (SKLC), CALI,COLOMBIA
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Faa(other/organization) › Acft/equip, inadequate standard/requirement
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate standard/requirement
- Nacelle/pylon, fitting › Fatigue
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE #3 ENGINE AND PYLON SEPARATED FROM THE AIRPLANE AS A RESULT OF THE FAILURE OF THE PYLON INBOARD MIDSPAR SUPPORT FITTING. THE FITTING HAD CRACKED DUE TO FATIGUE, AND HAD BEEN CRACKED FOR SOME TIME. THE POINT OF CRACKING WAS NOT VISIBLE FOR INSPECTION ON THE WING. THE FITTING IS THE SUBJECT OF FAA AIRWORTHINESS DIRECTIVE 88-24-10 AND BOEING SERVICE BULLETIN 3183 WHICH REQUIRE VISUAL INSPECTION OF THE MIDSPAR FITTING EACH 1500 FLIGHT HOURS OR 600 CYCLES. THIS INSPECTION HAD BEEN COMPLETED ON THE FAILED FITTING ON JANUARY 2, 1992, 821 FLIGHT HOURS AND 328 CYCLES BEFORE THE FAILURE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE #3 ENGINE PYLON INBOARD MIDSPAR SUPPORT FITTING DUE TO FATIGUE CRACKING WHICH RESULTED IN THE SEPARATION OF THE NUMBER THREE ENGINE AND PYLON. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE INADEQUATE INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS OF THE MANUFACTURER AND THE FAA TO DETECT CRACKS IN THE MIDSPAR FITTING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92FA115
- Event ID
- 20001211X14475
- Case number
- MIA92FA115
- 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: a1ca32c7a78548c0faf383dd6181a07729881b8f4093d8129348e72bf7bb173c; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:47:09.100Z.