Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1011 incident
Lockheed L-1011 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC85IA131
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Lockheed L-1011
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-1011
- 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
- N31013
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, MATo St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), ST.LOUIS, MO
- 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
- Approach · IFR initial approach
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Flight control, flap attachment › Fatigue
- Flight control, flap attachment › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE ON AN IFR APPROACH TO LAND AT STL AND THE PLT INITIATED FLAPS. THE NO.3 OUTBOARD FLAP VANE SEPARATED FROM ITS MOUNTING AND FELL TO THE GROUND. UPON SEPARATION THE FLAP VANE STRUCK THE LEADING EDGE OF THE TRAILING EDGE FLAP KNOCKING A HOLE IN THE SKIN. THE SUBSEQUENT LANDING WAS UNEVENTFUL. EXAMINATION OF THE FLAP VANE ATTACH FITTING REVEALED IT FAILED IN FATIGUE FOLLOWED BY AN OVERLOAD SEPARATION. THERE HAVE BEEN 14 RECORDED CASES OF FAILURE OF THE FLAP VANE ATTACH FITTINGS WITH 9 REPORTED SEPARATIONS FROM THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC85IA131
- Event ID
- 20001214X36865
- Case number
- MKC85IA131
- 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: 4e01004fa679022a0419120409a6b942bc2211003ed96f666a2019ad2a8ca401; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:22:04.367Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N31013; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, TWAA.