Southern Air Transport (sat) Boeing 707-323C accident
Boeing 707-323C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Kansas City International Airport (MCI)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN91FA098
- 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 707-323C
- 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
- N8404
- Operator
- Southern Air Transport (sat)
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Kansas City International Airport (MCI), Kansas City, MO
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Landing gear, nose gear strut › Separation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING ROTATION ON THE TAKEOFF ROLL, THE NOSE LANDING GEAR CAME OFF THE AIRPLANE AND REMAINED ON THE GROUND. AS THE AIRCRAFT PASSED OVER THE NOSE LANDING GEAR ASSEMBLY, DAMAGE OCCURRED TO THE BELLY OF THE AIRCRAFT. TAKEOFF WAS COMPLETED AND AN EMERGENCY LANDING WAS CONDUCTED WITH THE MAIN LANDING GEAR AND THE STUB OF THE NOSE LANDING GEAR SHOCK STRUT EXTENDED. DISASSEMBLY OF THE SHOCK STRUT INNER CYLINDER REVEALED THE ABSENCE OF SEVERAL PARTS. THE AREA WHERE THESE PARTS ARE LOCATED IS A SEALED AREA THAT WAS NOT COMPROMISED. THIS DISCREPANCY ALLOWED A RETENTION NUT TO BACK OFF WHICH RESULTED IN NOSE GEAR SEPARATION. THE NOSE GEAR ASSEMBLY WAS OVERHAULED ON 9/4/85.
Probable cause
IMPROPER OVERHAUL OF THE NOSE GEAR ASSEMBLY BY OTHER MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN91FA098
- Event ID
- 20001212X17522
- Case number
- DEN91FA098
- 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 1991-07-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3685512d46fbd8fa443c56603496c0366eac4ff4f9f6beeb4fc6732f7f2d2234; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:53:55.635Z.