American Airlines Boeing 727-223 accident
Boeing 727-223 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85FA174
- 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
- Unknown
Boeing 727-223
- 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
- N856AA
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, TXTo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
- 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 · 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, intentional
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT WAS PARALLELING A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS AND NEEDED TO GET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LINE TO GET TO HIS DESTINATION. THE CENTER CONTROLLER SUGGESTED THAT HE REVERSE COURSE TO FLY AROUND THE CLOSER END OF THE LINE BUT THE PILOT DECIDED TO PENETRATE THE LINE INSTEAD. THE PILOT STATED HE WAS BETWEEN TWO THUNDERSTORM CELLS AT LEAST 45 NM APART WHEN THE AIRCRAFT RAN INTO SEVERE TURBULENCE. THE AIRCRAFT LOST 500 FT OF ALTITUDE AND TWO FLIGHT ATTENDANTS WERE INJURED. THEY WERE INSTRUCTED TO SIT DOWN EARLIER BUT DID NOT HAVE TIME TO STRAP IN. A PASSENGER ON HIS WAY TO THE LAVATORY REFUSED TO SIT DOWN WHEN INSTRUCTED TO DO SO BY THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS AND WAS INJURED ALSO DURING THE TURBULENCE ENCOUNTER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85FA174
- Event ID
- 20001214X36115
- Case number
- CHI85FA174
- 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, damage. 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: 2aecdb2649504c2ad61d5cd364946a46abfdbc069b2bb34e7f9974e7049339ae; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:27:04.357Z.