Eastern Boeing 727-225 incident
Boeing 727-225 and Usaf Lockheed C-141 · Incident: near collision between aircraft en route
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA87IA264
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Boeing 727-225
- 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
- N8864E
- Operator
- Eastern
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, MA
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
Aircraft 2 · Lockheed C-141
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed C-141
- 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
- USAF
- Operator
- Usaf
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McGuire AFB, NJTo McGuire AFB, NJ
- 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
- Armed Forces
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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(artcc) › IFR separation standards, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A FULL PERFORMANCE LEVEL CONTROLLER (FPL CTLR) AT SECTOR 31 OF BOSTON ARTCC WAS GIVING FAMILIARIZATION TRAINING TO ANOTHER FPL CTLR TO FAMILIARIZE THE TRAINEE WITH A NEW AREA THAT HAD BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM NEW YORK ARTCC TO BOSTON ARTCC. SECTOR 31 WAS CONSIDERED TO BE A RATHER COMPLEX & BUSY AREA. DURING A BUSY PERIOD AFTER TRAFFIC HAD 'PEAKED', THECTLRS WERE CONCENTRATING ON A POTENTIAL CONFLICT BETWEEN 2 ACFT WHEN ONE OF THEM (EASTERN FLT 380, A BOEING 727) BEGAN CONVERGING WITH A 3RD ACFT (MAC 67947, A USAF C-141). THE CONFLICT ALERT SYSTEM ACTIVATED & THE CTLRS ISSUED A TURN TO AVOID CONVERGENCE; HOWEVER, THE 2 ACFT PASSED WITHIN 1/2 MILE OF EACH OTHER WITH THE SAME ALTITUDE ASSIGNMENT. EA380 HADBEEN ASSIGNED AN ABNORMALLY LOW ALTITUDE (FL230) FOR ITS ROUTING. THE CONFLICT OCCURRED WHEN EA380 TURNED IN RESPONSE TO AN ARTCC CLEARANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA87IA264
- Event ID
- 20001213X32142
- Case number
- MIA87IA264
- 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: 002144b32b02a299ba99b2d770100f3dddc372d5aa11334a23b57f5d984c4e6b; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:37:10.993Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "ONE OF THEM (EASTERN FLT 380, A BOEING 727) BEGAN CONVERGING WITH A 3RD ACFT"