Continental Airlines Boeing 727-224 incident
Boeing 727-224 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Denver International Airport (DEN)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91IA297
- 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 727-224
- 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
- N88704
- Operator
- Continental Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, CO
- 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
- 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, inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INCIDENT AIRPLANE LANDED WITH THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR PARTIALLY EXTENDED. THE LANDING GEAR HAD FAILED TO RETRACT PROPERLY AFTER TAKEOFF. THE AIRPLANE REMAINED IN THE AREA OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT WHILE THE CREW, IN CONCERT WITH COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL AND THE AIRPLANE MANUFACTURER, UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTEMPTED TO TROUBLESHOOT AND RESTORE THE LANDING GEAR TO WORKING ORDER. THEY LANDED BACK AT THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT WITH CRASH FIRE RESCUE EQUIPMENT STANDING BY. FIRE TRUCKS APPLIED FOAM TO THE LEFT WING AND WHEEL AREA AFTER THE AIRPLANE STOPPED ON THE RUNWAY. AFTER LANDING THE CREW AND PASSENGERS EXITED THE AIRPLANE USING THE AIRCRAFT AIRSTAIRS. INSPECTION OF THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR (MLG) REVEALED THE LANDING GEAR TRUCKS HAD BEEN CAPTURED AND SUSPENDED IN AN INTERMEDIATE POSITION BY THE LEFT MAIN GEAR INBOARD DOOR ASSEMBLY. EXAMINATION OF THE MLG DOOR ACTUATOR FITTING SHOWED THE ACTUATOR HAD MOVED TO THE FAR END OF THE AVAILABLE ADJUSTMENT RANGE.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE INSPECTION OF THE MAIN LANDING GEAR ACTUATOR ASSEMBLY BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL. A FACTOR IN THE INCIDENT IS INADEQUATE DESIGN OF THE LANDING GEAR ACTUATOR BY THE MANUFACTURER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91IA297
- Event ID
- 20001212X18055
- Case number
- CHI91IA297
- 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: 66ae42898f27478b4839a314a56ed2a76ffd08046aa708a138c1fcd161c9f793; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:52:22.540Z.