Delta Airlines Lockheed L1011 accident
Lockheed L1011 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA87MA012
- 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
- Accident
- 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
Lockheed L1011
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L1011
- 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
- N714DA
- Operator
- Delta Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GATo Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJ
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Manufacturer › Acft/equip, inadequate design
- Wing › Fatigue
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Newark, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
ON NOVEMBER 13, 1986, THE REAR MAIN SPAR OF THE RIGHT WING FAILED AS DELTA FLT 194 TOUCHED DOWN ON RWY 29 AT NEWARK AIRPORT. THE PILOTS STATED THAT THERE WAS MODERATE TURBULENCE ON FINAL APPROACH AND INITIAL TOUCHDOWN WAS ON THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR FIRST. THE TOUCHDOWN WAS FIRM BUT NOT HARD WHICH WAS CONFIRMED FROM THE 1.4G RECORDED ON THE DFDR. THE 1.4G FORCE IS WELL WITHIN THE LANDING GEAR CERTIFICATION LIMITS. THE SPAR WEB FAILURE WAS CAUSED BY A FATIGUE CRACK THAT ORIGINATED AT A 'HI - LOC' FASTENER HOLE LOCATED AT THE LOWER INBOARD CORNER OF A DOUBLER THAT SURROUNDS THE FUEL FILLER VALVE WHICH IS MOUNTED VERTICALLY ON THE SPAR WEB. THE FATIGUE ZONE IN THE SPAR WEB HAD PROGRESSED ABOUT 6 3/4 INCHES BEFORE THE WEB FAILED AS THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN. THE FRACTURE IN THE SPAR WEB EXTENDED DIAGNALLY DOWNWARD AND OUTBOARD AT 45 DEGREES FROM INBOARD WING STATION 241.0 TO INBOARD STATION 293.5. THE FLIGHT CREW DID NOT REPORT ANY AIRPLANE MALFUNCTION DURING THE FLIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA87MA012
- Event ID
- 20001213X35149
- Case number
- DCA87MA012
- 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: 2e35325c4d863398641931f9a07413f9d68c0f151741e4a86f1f01b45034a441; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:48:37.093Z.