Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727-225 incident
Boeing 727-225 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Norman Manley International Airport (MKJP) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA86IA213
- 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 727-225
- 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
- N8872Z
- Operator
- Eastern Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Norman Manley International Airport (MKJP), KingstonTo 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
- 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 › Corroded
- Landing gear, gear locking mechanism › Failure, total
- Landing gear, nose gear assembly › Inoperative
- Manufacturer › Inadequate surveillance, inadequate procedure
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
FLT WAS UNABLE TO EXTEND NOSE GEAR AND A NOSE GEAR UP LANDING WAS MADE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE NOSE GEAR DRAG BRACE TO BE LOCKED IN THE UP POSITION. DISASSEMBLY OF THE DRAG BRACE REVEALED THE LINK ASSEMBLIES WHICH CONNECT THE LOCKING PAWLS TO THE LOCKING ACTUATOR HAD FAILED. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED THE LINK ASSEMBLIES FAILED DUE TO CORROSION CRACKING. CORROSION WAS CAUSED BY ELECTROLYTIC REACTION BETWEEN THE METAL IN THE BUSHING OF THE LINK AND THE METAL OF THE LINK. EXAMINATION OF THE BUSHINGS INSTALLED IN THE LINK REVEALED THE ABSENCE OF CADMIUM PLATING AND CHROMATE COATING. THE BUSHINGS WERE OBTAINED BY EASTERN AIRLINES FROM A VENDOR WHO WAS MANUFACTURING THE PART USING PLANS SUPPLIED BY EASTERN. THE EASTERN PLANS CALL FOR CADMIUM PLATING AND CHROMATE COATING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA86IA213
- Event ID
- 20001213X34244
- Case number
- MIA86IA213
- 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: 6d74e1740dfc2dd3138f0d78c33a4d78ca0ac7448e8282a4b1c37d3612843833; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:57:19.300Z.