United Airlines Boeing 727-200 accident
Boeing 727-200 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Denver International Airport (DEN) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA206
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Boeing 727-200
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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
- N7467U
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, COTo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Crew/group coordination, poor
- Pilot in command › Instructions, written/verbal, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Janesville, WI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE OPERATOR REPORTED THAT THE FLIGHT WAS DESCENDING THROUGH 26,000 FT IN HEAVY RAIN, HAIL AND MODERATE TURBULENCE. THE FLIGHT CREW TURNED ON THE FASTEN SEAT BELT SIGN AND TOLD THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TO TAKE THEIR SEATS. BEFORE THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT IN THE AFT GALLEY COULD REACH HER SEAT, SHE WAS UPSET BY TURBULENCE AND BROKE HER ANKLE.
Probable cause
THE CAPTAIN'S DELAY IN ISSUING INSTRUCTIONS TO THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TO TAKE THEIR SEATS, AND HIS POOR CREW COORDINATION. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE TURBULENCE IN CLOUDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA206
- Event ID
- 20001211X15117
- Case number
- CHI92LA206
- 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: f6fba2ff95b60ef3740b8931c54232c51d415b497602370e7342a8bd469515f9; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:45:55.174Z.