TWA Boeing 727-231 incident
Boeing 727-231 and LTV A-7 (4 ACFT) A-7 (4 ACF · Incident: near collision between aircraft en route
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86MA151
- 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 727-231
- 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
- N64315
- Operator
- TWA
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, OHTo St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), St. Louis, MO
- 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 · climb to 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 · LTV A-7 (4 ACFT) A-7 (4 ACF
- Aircraft type
- LTV A-7
- 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
- AFNG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Columbus, OHTo 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(artcc) › Artcc service, inadequate
- Atc personnel(artcc) › Identification of aircraft on radar, not maintained
- Check pilot › Supervision, inadequate
- IFR separation standards › Not maintained
- Pilot in command › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
- Pilot in command › Radio communications, delayed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Radio communications, delayed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Cincinnati, OH, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
INDIANAPOLIS CTR (CTLR-A) CLRD SLUFF 11 (S-11), A FLT OF 4 ANG A-7'S, TO CLB TO FL210. LATER, CTLR-A TOLD S-11 TO CHG FREQ (TO YORK LOW SECTOR, CTLR-B). S-11 CHGD FREQ, BUT NEITHER S-11 NOR CTLR-B ESTABLISHED RDO CONTACT WITH EACH OTHER UNTIL S-11 HAD CONTD INTO THE RICHMOND SECTOR (CTLR C'S AREA). ANOTHER FLT, SLUFF 31 (S-31), CANCELED IFR CLNC WITH CTLR-C; HOWEVER, CTLR-C (A DEVELOPMENTAL CTLR) BCM CONFUSED WITH THE SIMILAR CALL SIGNS & INADVERTENTLY ENTERED A CANCELLATION NOTE ON THE COMPUTOR STRIP FOR S-11; HIS INSTRUCTOR DID NOT NOTE THE ERROR. THE STRIP WAS HANDED TO THE D-SIDE CTLR, WHO QUESTIONED THE NOTATION, BUT ENTERED A CANCELLATION MESSAGE IN THE COMPUTER, THUS REPLACING THE FULL DATA BLK FOR S-11 WITH A LIMITED DATA BLK. SVRL MIN LATER, S-11 CONVERGED WITH A BOEING 727 (TWA FLT 489) THAT HAD BEEN CLRD TO CLB TO FL230. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE FLTS PASSED W/I AN ESTIMATED 500' VERTICALLY & 200' LATERALLY OF EACH OTHER. THE FLT LEADER OF SLUFF 11 WAS ON A CHECK FLT & WAS BEING EVALUATED BY A STAN/EVAL INSTRUCTOR PLT (SLUFF 12).
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86MA151
- Event ID
- 20001213X33115
- Case number
- LAX86MA151
- 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: f96be3aea16c101303e4728f9d155a74e17610285585a36aa83d5fe74388662c; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:03:12.501Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "S-11 CONVERGED WITH A BOEING 727 (TWA FLT 489) THAT HAD BEEN CLRD TO CLB TO FL230"