Alaska Airlines Boeing 727-200 incident
Boeing 727-200 · Incident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Portland International Airport (PDX) to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA88IA108
- 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 727-200
- 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
- N308AS
- Operator
- Alaska Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland International Airport (PDX), Portland, ORTo Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Seattle, WA
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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
- Thrust reverser › Asymmetrical
- Thrust reverser, door › Failure, partial
- Thrust reverser, door › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER THE MAIN GEAR TOUCHED DOWN, THRUST LEVERS WERE PLACED IN THE IDLE REVERSE POSITION. ONCE THE AIRCRAFT'S NOSE GEAR CONTACTED THE RUNWAY, BRAKING AND FULL REVERSE THRUST WAS APPLIED. THE AIRCRAFT STARTED TO DRIFT TO THE LEFT OF THE RUNWAY CENTERLINE. THE PILOT APPLIED ASYMMETRICAL BRAKING WITH NO CHANGE IN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL. THE PILOT THEN COMBINED THE USE OF ASYMMETRICAL BRAKING WITH ASYMMETRICAL REVERSE THRUST. AS A FINAL EFFORT TO PREVENT THE AIRCRAFT FROM DEPARTING THE RUNWAY, THE CAPTAIN USED THE TILLER. THE AIRCRAFT CAME TO REST ON A GRASSY AREA BETWEEN THE PARALLEL RUNWAYS. THE AIRCRAFT IS EQUIPPED WITH 'LIGHTWEIGHT' CLAMSHELL THRUST REVERSERS. THE RIGHT HAND THRUST REVERSER ON THE NUMBER 2 ENGINE WAS FOUND FAILED IN THE OPEN (FORWARD THRUST) POSITION. THRUST REVERSER LIGHTS DID NOT INDICATE ANY ABNORMALITIES. AN OVERSTRESS FRACTURE OF THE LOWER INNER HINGE WITH A FATIGUE FRACTURE THROUGH THE FLANGE OF THE UPPER OUTER HINGE WAS FOUND BY METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA88IA108
- Event ID
- 20001213X26073
- Case number
- SEA88IA108
- 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 1988-06-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ead8ddc1147010639f6b5d258e9af780c574d1438a81de4da5338fff8d822d36; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:21:26.330Z.