American Airlines Boeing 727-200B incident
Boeing 727-200B · Incident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX) to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85IA168
- 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 727-200B
- 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
- N701AA
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX), Mexico CityTo Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), DFW INTER ARPT, TX
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Utility pole
- 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
- Pilot in command › All available runway, not used
- Pilot in command › Interpretation of instructions, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Mexico City, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB AFTER TAKEOFF A 27 FOOT TALL LIGHT POLE WAS STRUCK BY THE RIGHT MAIN LANDING GEAR 1,677 FEET FROM THE END OF THE RWY. ACFT GROSS WEIGHT DICTATED A 5 DEG FLAP TAKEOFF AND COMPANY PERFORMANCE DATA AUTHORIZED DEPARTURE ON EITHER RWY 5R OR 23L. THE CREW PERFORMED AN INTERSECTION TAKEOFF ON RWY 23R RESULTING IN 10,415 FT OF USABLE RWY INSTEAD OF THE PROGRAMED 13,190 FT ON 5R/23L. THE CAPTAIN WAS FLYING THE ACFT BUT NEITHER THE COPILOT OR THE FLIGHT ENGINEER RECOGNIZED THE ERROR OR INITIATED REMEDIAL ACTION. POLE CONTACT RESULTED IN A BLOWN #4 TIRE AND DAMAGE TO THE GEAR ASS'Y AND TRAILING EDGE FLAP. THE ACFT LANDED UNEVENTFULLY AT DFW ARPT, THE INTENDED DEST. DENSITY ALT WAS APRX 10,000 FT MSL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85IA168
- Event ID
- 20001214X35906
- Case number
- FTW85IA168
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: eff1c5afcee3c26b18c5f646a10054a7be8e9b59dacc6cb3a1e6a09577df38e9; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:29:19.202Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N701AA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, AALA.