United Parcel Service Douglas DC-8-71F incident
Douglas DC-8-71F · Incident: airframe, component or system failure while taxiing
From Miami International Airport (MIA) to Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92IA166
- 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
Douglas DC-8-71F
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-8
- 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
- N748UP
- Operator
- United Parcel Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA)To Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF), Louisville, KY
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, lubrication, inadequate
- Company/operator management › Information insufficient
- Landing gear, main gear › Collapsed
- Landing gear, main gear › Corroded
- Landing gear, main gear › Cracked
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED COLLAPSE OF THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR BOGIE WHILE STOPPED AT THE RUNWAY AWAITING TAKEOFF CLEARANCE. POSTINCIDENT EXAMINATION INDICATED THE AFT BOGIE SWIVEL JOINT LUGS HAD FAILED DUE TO STRESS CORROSION CRACKING. THE SWIVEL JOINT DID NOT HAVE PROPER LUBRICATION WHICH KEEPS WATER OUT. THIS ALLOWED FORMATION OF CORROSION ON THE SURFACE OF THE LUGS, AND SUBSEQUENT CRACK INITIATION AT THE CORROSION PITS. OPERATOR MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS SPECIFIED THAT THE SWIVEL JOINT BE LUBRICATED EVERY WEEKEND CHECK AND EVERY 'A' CHECK. THE WORK CARDS FOR THESE TWO INSPECTIONS CALLED OUT IN NARRATIVE FORM THE LUBRICATING OF THE BOGIE PIVOT JOINT. THE CARDS CALLED FOR THE SWIVEL JOINT TO BE LUBRICATED BY REFERENCE TO A NUMBER ON AN ILLUSTRATION. THE FAILURE OF THE SWIVEL JOINT LUGS WAS THE SUBJECT OF DOUGLAS AIRCRAFT ALL OPERATOR LETTERS IN 1976 AND 1990. THESE LETTERS STRESSED TO OPERATORS THE IMPORTANCE OF LUBRICATING THE SWIVEL JOINT TO PREVENT CORROSION FORMATION.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE AIRCRAFT OPERATOR MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL TO ADEQUATELY LUBRICATE AND SEAL THE MAIN LANDING GEAR BOGIE BEAM SWIVEL JOINT AS REQUIRED BY MANUFACTURER AND OPERATOR MAINTENANCE PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS. THIS ALLOWED MOISTURE TO ENTER THE SWIVEL JOINT AND CAUSE CORROSION DAMAGE WHICH CAUSED STRESS CORROSION CRACKING AND FAILURE OF THE SWIVEL JOINT LUGS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE INCIDENT WAS LACK OF CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS IN THE OPERATORS MAINTENANCE PROGRAM REGARDING LUBRICATION OF THE SWIVEL JOINT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92IA166
- Event ID
- 20001211X15471
- Case number
- MIA92IA166
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-08-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 02f61b5ab609cbf1e20200697a900f5c55c1d8ad545817342c81c8446f4fad37; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:44:32.839Z.