Delta Airlines Lockheed L-1011-385-1 L-1011-385 accident
Lockheed L-1011-385-1 L-1011-385 · Accident: hard landing
From Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU) to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA240
- 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
Lockheed L-1011-385-1 L-1011-385
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-1011
- 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
- N720DA
- Operator
- Delta Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU), San Juan, PRTo Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GA
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Check pilot › Flare, excessive
- Check pilot › Remedial action, delayed
- Check pilot › Supervision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Flare, excessive
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS BEING FLOWN MANUALLY FOR AN ILS APCH TO RWY 8L AT ATLANTA. THE APCH WAS ALLOWED TO BECOME UNSTABLE AT ABOUT THE MIDDLE MARKER AND THE VERTICAL SPEED WAS INCREASED TO ABOUT 1290 FEET PER MINUTE ABOUT FIVE SECONDS BEFORE TOUCHDOWN. THE IOE CAPT IN THE LEFT SEAT WAS TOLD BY THE COMPANY CK AMN THAT HE NEEDED TO GET HIS NOSE UP. AS THE IOE CAPT INITIATED FLARE, THE CK AMN ALSO APPLIED NOSE UP CONTROL INPUTS. THE ACFT MADE THREE TOUCHDOWNS AND THE AFT FUSELAGE CONTACTED THE RWY RESULTING IN SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE. THE IOE CAPT HAD COMPLETED HIS FIRST CLASS PHYSICAL EXAM FIVE DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT AND UNDERWENT BYPASS SURGERY 17 DAYS SUBSEQUENT TO THE ACCIDENT. IN ADDITION, HE INDICATED THAT 3-4 YEARS EARLIER HE HAD EXPERIENCED CHEST PAINS AND SHORTNESS OF BREATH WHICH HAD BEEN DIAGNOSED AS A HIATAL HERNIA. THE SAME SYMPTOMS HAD REAPPEARED ABOUT ONE WEEK PRIOR TO HIS BEGINNING L-1011 GROUND SCHOOL. THE ACCD FLT WAS BEING CONDUCTED ON THE SECOND DAY OF THE CAPT,S IOE IN THE L-1011.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA240
- Event ID
- 20001213X31706
- Case number
- ATL87FA240
- 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: c0e6e7f97c927fbdd9a7862618b6c32a11de9107316fd8f63bb21134222f4eb6; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:38:19.797Z.