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United Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71 incident

2 Sept 1987 · Chicago, IL, United States

McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure while standing

From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to Sacramento International Airport (SMF)

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Event

NTSB case
CHI87IA201
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

McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71

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
N8078U
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)To Sacramento International Airport (SMF), Sacramento, CA
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
Standing · engine(s) start-up
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
None

Cause areas

  • Air cond/heating/pressurization › Overtemperature
  • Air cond/heating/pressurization, safety valve › Failure, total
  • Fuselage, cabin › Smoke

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

SMOKE DETECTED IN THE CABIN RESULTED IN AN EVACUATION OF THE AIRCRAFT JUST AFTER BEING PUSHED BACK FROM THE JET-WAY. SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION ESTABLISHED THAT A MALFUNCTIONING PACK VALVE HAD CAUSED THE AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM TO OVERHEAT CAUSING THE SMOKE. THE EMERGENCY SLIDE AT DOOR 2R INFLATED PARTIALLY INSIDE THE ACFT AND WAS NOT USABLE. AT THE TIME OF INITIAL INVESTIGATION THE SLIDE TRAY DOOR FROM 2R WAS FOUND LYING ON THE FLOOR INSIDE THE ACFT. EXITS 1L, 2L, 4L, 4R AND FOUR OVER WING EXITS WERE USED (THE CAPT HAD LOWERED THE FLAPS TO FULL DOWN FOR THE EVACUATION). IT WAS DETERMINED DURING INVESTIGATION THAT THE DOOR WAS NOT OPENED FULLY ENOUGH FOR EXIT 2R TO OPERATE PROPERLY. UAL MODIFIED THE TRAINING TO EMPHASIZE THE DOOR OPENING PROCEDURE. THE FA SAID SHE PULLED THE (MANUAL INFLATION) HANDLE ON 2R.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI87IA201
Event ID
20001213X32029
Case number
CHI87IA201
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: local date, investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-09-03.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 1cc86164f3441c92487da9e86057b7442741b44cc0ae1dec15aa0217369e7dfc; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:38:04.236Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N8078U; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, UALA.