United Airlines Boeing 737-222 accident
Boeing 737-222 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT) to CHI · Chicago, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC88FA154
- 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 737-222
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N9060U
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bill & Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field (LIT), Little Rock, ARTo CHI · 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Passenger › Emergency equipment, not used
- Turbine assembly, turbine blade › Failure, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE SKED AIR CARRIER FLT WAS ABORTED AFTER THE CAPT HEARD A NOISE AND FELT A VIBRATION EMANATING FROM THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ACFT, WHICH AT THE TIME, WAS PERCEIVED AS A 'BLOWN' TIRE. THE ACFT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY STOPPED ON THE ACTIVE RWY, AND AN ORDER FM THE CAPTAIN TO REMAIN SEATED WAS GIVEN. THIS ORDER WAS ALMOST IMMEDIATELY RESCINDED WHEN IT WAS LEARNED, THROUGH A VISUAL SIGHTING, THAT THE LEFT ENG WAS ON FIRE. THE CAPTAIN ISSUED A FIRM ORDER AND EVACUATION OF THE PAX WAS INITIATED. THE SMOKE FROM THE LEFT ENG PROHIBITED PAX USING THE OVERWING EXITS FROM DEPLANING IN THE PRESCRIBED MANNER. THE PAX WHO WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED WERE KNOWN TO HAVE JUMPED FROM THE FRONT OF THE WING INSTEAD OF USING THE WING FLAP, WHICH ACTS AS A SLIDE OFF THE REAR OF THE WING. EXAM OF THE LEFT ENG REVEALED FAILURE OF THE 4TH STAGE TURBINE SECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC88FA154
- Event ID
- 20001213X26646
- Case number
- MKC88FA154
- 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: e9d49296afa885a18f9373209723560a95fa5383ec2269a97d4b17e1c109f6a0; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:19:51.321Z.