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Pan American World Airways Boeing 727 incident

6 Nov 1988 · Houston, TX, United States

Boeing 727 · Incident: near collision between aircraft on approach

From Miami International Airport (MIA) to William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)

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Event

NTSB case
FTW89IA016
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

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
N386PA
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FLTo William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), Houston, TX
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
Approach
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
Near collision between aircraft
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

  • Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Traffic advisory, not issued
  • Pilot in command › Visual lookout, delayed

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DRG A GILCO ONE ARRIVAL (STAR), PAN AMERICAN FLT 511 WAS CLRD BY HOUSTON APCH CTL TO DSCND & MAINT 6000'. AS FLT 511 WASINBOUND (TRAVELING WEST) ON THE STAR AT 6000' & 250 KTS, IT CONVERGED WITH A CESSNA 172 OR 182 ABOUT 10 MI EAST OF THE ARPT. THE CESSNA WAS ON A WNW COURSE AT 6000' NEAR THE ARPT SERVICE AREA (ARSA). AS THE 2 ACFT WERE CONVERGING, THE FLT ENGINEER IDENTIFIED THE CESSNA AHEAD & THE CAPT TOOK EVASIVE ACTION BY TURNING LEFT. FLT 511 PASSED THE CESSNA WITH AN ESTIMATED 100 YDS OF SEPN. THE CESSNA PLT WAS NOT IN RADIO COMMUNIATION WITH APCH CTL, NOR WAS HOUSTON RADAR RCVG A TRANSPONDER REPLY FROM THE CESSNA. THE UPPER LIMIT OF THE ARSA WAS AT 4000' MSL. THE CAPT OF FLT 511 RPRTD A NEAR COLLISION TO THE CTLR. THE CTLR ACKNOWLEDGED & ADVISED HE WAS AWARE OF THE TRAFFIC, BUT JUST DID NOT ISSUE AN ADVISORY. RADAR DATA VERIFIED THAT THE UNIDENTIFIED CESSNA HAD BEEN MANEUVERING IN A BUSY AREA ABOUT 10 MI EAST OF HOUSTON/HOBBY ARPT (ALONG THE GILCO ONE ARRIVAL ROUTE) WITH NO TRANSPONDER DISPLAY.

Probable cause

POOR PLANNING/DECISION BY THE UNIDENTIFIED CESSNA PILOT BY MANEUVERING IN BUSY AIRSPACE NEAR THE ARSA WITH NO ATC COORDINATION OR TRANSPONDER SIGNAL; NO TRAFFIC ADVISORY BEING ISSUED BY THE APPROACH CONTROLLER; AND INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY THE FLIGHT CREW OF THE BOEING 727. A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR WAS THE LACK OF AIR/GROUND COMMUNICATION BY THE UNIDENTIFIED PILOT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW89IA016
Event ID
20001213X27252
Case number
FTW89IA016
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
  • 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: fb116b43d3a66c13509eced45e2688bb1d7ed7e79b7d4a3488827b7dcc33088c; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:16:55.900Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N386PA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, PAAA.