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MIA86IA098 · Boeing 727

16 Mar 1986 · Miami, FL, United States

Boeing 727 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure on approach

From LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)

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Event

NTSB case
MIA86IA098
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

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
N8861E
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), NEW YORK, NYTo Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL), FT.LAUDERDALE, FL
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
Approach
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
Minor

Cause areas

  • Landing gear, gear locking mechanism › Fatigue
  • Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not used

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

NTSB narrative

DURING ARRIVAL AT FT LAUDERDALE, THE AIRCREW ATTEMPTED TO EXTEND THE GEAR, BUT AT FIRST, THEY WERE UNABLE TO GET A SAFE 'DOWN' INDICATION FOR THE RGT MAIN GEAR. AFTER ABOUT ONE HOUR, THEY WERE ABLE TO INSURE THAT BOTH MAIN GEAR HAD EXTENDED& WERE LOCKED. THEY DIVERTED TO MIAMI, BUT BY THEN, THEY WERE UNABLE TO EXTEND THE NOSE GEAR BY USING THE NORMAL GEAR EXTENSION SYS & THEY HAD ONLY 4000 LBS OF FUEL REMAINING. THE CAPTAIN ELECTED TO LAND WITHOUT MANUALLY EXTENDING THE NOSE GEAR; HE WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THE LOW FUEL CONDITION AND BELIEVED THAT HE MIGHT COMPROMISE THE MAIN LANDING GEAR POSITION BY PLACING THE GEAR HANDLE IN THE NEUTRAL POSITION WHILE THE 'A' HYDRAULIC SYS WAS OFF. AN EXAM REVEALED THE ROD END OF THE LANDING GEAR LOCK ACTUATOR, PN 69-30537-4, HAD FAILED. A METALLURGICAL EXAM REVEALED THE ROD END HAD FAILED FROM FATIGUE IN THE THREADED AREA WHERE CORROSION HAD OCCURRED. ALSO, AN ELEC FAILURE WAS FND IN THE LANDING GEAR LOGIC RESOLUTION CIRCUIT THAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED AN IMPROPER INDICATION OF THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MIA86IA098
Event ID
20001213X33124
Case number
MIA86IA098
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: 46e84521174b3c8036bda4a9e20fe42d44949dad907e63ee0a4129c0d30480f4; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:03:45.025Z.