Trans World Airlines Boeing 727-231 incident
Boeing 727-231 · Incident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA88IA072
- 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 727-231
- 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
- N54344
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- Taxi
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
- Pilot in command › Taxispeed, excessive
- Pilot in command › Unsafe/hazardous condition warning, disregarded
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
PLT WAS INSTRUCTED TO TURN THE TAIL TO THE RIGHT AS VIEWED BY THE SIGNAL MAN DURING POWER BACK. AS POWER BACK STARTED THE TAIL WAS TURNED TO THE LEFT AS VIEWED BY THE SIGNAL MAN. THE SIGNAL MAN CORRECTED THIS TURN BUT THE ACFT WAS NOW MAKING A MUCH LARGER ARC AND WAS APPROACHING THE AIRCRAFT PARKING AREA AT THE OPPOSITE CONCOURSE. THE SIGNAL MAN URGENTLY SIGNALED FOR THE PLT TO COME FORWARD BUT THE ACFT ROLLED BACK ANOTHER 40 TO 50 FEET STRIKING A PARKED CARGO LOADER. WITNESSES STATED THE ACFT WAS BEING POWER BACKED AT A MUCH GREATER SPEED THAN NORMAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA88IA072
- Event ID
- 20001213X32732
- Case number
- MIA88IA072
- 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: 7ade5b8e0792646e4e087097786ff2004a92c999a3d0a0fbb3c019628d04cd98; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:32:36.933Z.