Galaxy Air Lines Lockheed 188C accident
Lockheed 188C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL85MA083
- 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 188C
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed 188
- 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
- N854U
- Operator
- Galaxy Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), Philadelphia, PATo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NC
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Door, landing gear › Clearance
- Door, landing gear › Exceeded
- Landing gear, main gear › Movement restricted
- Landing gear, normal retraction/extension assembly › Jammed
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
DURING GEAR RETRACTION AFTER TAKEOFF, THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR BECAME JAMMED IN A PARTIALLY RETRACTED PSN & THE RESPECTIVE IN-TRANSIT GEAR LIGHT WOULD NOT EXTINGUISH. ATTEMPTS TO RECYCLE THE GEAR WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THE FLT CREW DIVERTED TO ATLANTA, GA; THEN DECIDED TO LAND AT DOBBINS AFB, WHERE THERE WAS A LONG, WIDE RWY THAT COULD BE FOAMED. FOAM WAS APPLIED TO APRX 300 FT OF RWY 29. THE ACFT WAS LANDED WITH THE NOSE & LEFT MAIN GEAR EXTENDED & THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR PARTIALLY RETRACTED. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT VEERED TO THE RIGHT & STOPPED WITH THE NOSE GEAR APRX 70 FT OFF THE RWY. FIRE ERUPTED IN THE AREA OF THE RIGHT MAIN GEAR; HOWEVER, THE FIRE WAS QUICKLY EXTINGUISHED BY FIRE DEPT PERSONNEL. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE CLEARANCE BTN THE MAIN LANDING GEAR DOOR HOOK, PN 803845-1, & THE STRUT ROLLER WAS EXCESSIVE.THE REASON FOR THE IMPROPER CLEARANCE WAS NOT DETERMINED. LOCKHEED SERVICE BULLETIN 88/SB-558 WARNED THAT EXCESSIVE CLEARANCE COMBINED WITH A DROP IN HYDRAULIC PRESSURE, GUST OR MANEUVER COULD RESULT IN THE GEAR JAMMING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL85MA083
- Event ID
- 20001214X35471
- Case number
- ATL85MA083
- 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: a7897ebdbcb0e090572a420925c103c30800c0cc707aca2a455ab485379c4a34; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:31:41.400Z.