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Trans World Airlines Boeing 727-231 incident

26 Mar 1986 · Boston, MA, United States

Boeing 727-231 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure while taxiing

From St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
NYC86IA093
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
N52311
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), ST LOUIS, MOTo 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 · from runway
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, cabin temp control › Failure, partial

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

NTSB narrative

TWO OF 3 REQD FLT ATTENDANTS (F/A'S) WERE DISTRIBUTING PASSENGER (PAX) COATS AS THE ACFT WAS BEING TAXIED AFTER LNDG. SMOKE FM AN OVERHEATED AIR COND (A/C) PACK BGN ENTERING THE CABIN & THE F/A'S RETURNED TO THEIR DUTY STATIONS. THE FLT CREW STOPPED THE ACFT AT THE GATE & SHUT DWN THE ENGS, BUT LEFT THE APU RUNNING TO PROVIDE ELECTRICITY FOR LIGHTING. THEF/A'S OPENED THE L FWD DOOR & GND PSNL OPENED THE REAR STAIR DOOR TO DEPLANE THE PAX. THE CAPT MADE AN ANNOUNCEMENT TO KEEP THE PAX CALM, BUT SMOKE BCM DENSE & PAX OPENED THE EMERG EXITS OVR THE WINGS & BGN EXITING FM THEM. TWO PAX RCVD MINOR INJURIES WHILE EXITING OVR THE WINGS. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE ACFT HAD BEEN DISPATCHED WITH THE R PACK COOL-ING FAN INOP AS AUTHORIZED BY THE MIN EQUIP LIST (MEL). DRG FLT, A RADIO INTERFERENCE FILTER IN THE A/C SYS FAILED WHICHALLOWED THE FWD PACK SHUT-OFF VALVE TO OPEN, BUT NOT CLOSE. THIS PERMITTED APU AIR TO RUN THE AFFECTED PACK EVEN THO THESWITCH WAS OFF & A CIRCUIT BRKR WAS PULLED. WITH THE ENGS SHUT DOWN & THE R COOLING FAN INOP, THE SYS OVERHEATED.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC86IA093
Event ID
20001213X33160
Case number
NYC86IA093
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: 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 1986-03-27.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: f26777ba64903471c75cbc527bc34e3e74ef428d37a8a9193865fa0e8a9dccf4; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:02:27.929Z.