CHI87IA026 · Boeing 757-251
Boeing 757-251 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI87IA026
- 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 757-251
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 757
- 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
- N516US
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), Minneapolis, MN
- 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
- 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
- Flt control syst, aileron control › Frozen
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate design
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Washington, DC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DRG AN EN ROUTE CLIMB, AILERON CONTROL (CTL) BCM PROGRESSIVELY MORE STIFF. AT CRUISE ALT, THE AUTOPLT DISENGAGED & THE AILERONS WOULD NOT MOVE. AILERON CTL WAS RESTORED AFTER A DSCNT BELOW THE FREEZING LEVEL. THE ACFT WAS FLOWN BELOW THE FREEZING LVL FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE FLT. A POST-FLT MAINT INSPN REVEALED NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE TEMPORARY LOSS OF AILERON CTL. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE ACFT WAS EXPOSED TO RAIN FOR ABOUT 50 MIN WHILE PARKED AT A GATE. THE TEMPERATURE IN WASHINGTON WAS IN THE MID 40'S. THE OPERATOR SUSPECTED ICE BUILD-UP ON THE AILERON CABLES. THE MANUFACTURER HAD ISSUED A SERVICE BULLETIN (SB) (SB B-757-0079) TO REMOVE THE AILERON CABLE GROMMETS & APPLYA SEALANT TO ELIMINATE THE PROBLEM. THE SB HAD BEEN COMPLIED WITH. AFTER THE INCIDENT, A REVISED SB, DATED 11/6/86, WAS ISSUED TO REPLACE THE AILERON CABLE GROMMETS WITH NEW GROMMETS WITH INCREASED INTERNAL DIAMETER. ALSO, AN OPNS MANUAL BULLETIN (NUMBER 87-1) WAS ISSUED ON 1/22/87 TO ADVISE FLT CREWS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI87IA026
- Event ID
- 20001213X35126
- Case number
- CHI87IA026
- 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 1986-11-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: cf430986c70ef9efc5ed6c1fe024ca6f49f3eae50ce5adc3d829255446ee3205; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:50:04.000Z.