Eastern Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 incident
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 · Incident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
From Tampa International Airport (TPA) to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA86MA013
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-9
- 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
- N412EA
- Operator
- Eastern Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa International Airport (TPA)To Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GA
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical 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
- Combustion assembly, outer casing › Fatigue
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER LIFT-OFF, THE FLT CREW HEARD A LOUD NOISE (SIMILAR, BUT LOUDER THAN A TIRE BLOW-OUT) AS THE #1 ENG FAILED.THEY SECURED THE #1 ENG, REMAINED IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN & LANDED ON THE SAME RWY. AFTER LANDING, AN EXAM REVEALED THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER OUTER CASE, PN 616315, HAD FAILED FROM LOW CYCLE FATIGUE. THE FATIGUE HAD PROPAGATED FROM A BOLT HOLEON THE REAR FLANGE & PROGRESSED FORWARD UNTIL IT REACHED A CRITICAL LENGTH, THEN THE REMAINING FRACTURE WAS FROM TENSILE OVERLOAD. NICKEL-CADMIUM PLATING WAS FOUND IN THE FATIGUE CRACKED AREA. THE CASE WAS LAST REPLATED AFTER IT WAS MODIFIED, APRX 5152 FLT HRS PRIOR TO THE ACDNT. PRATT & WHITNEY ENGINE REPAIR MANUAL 72-42-11 PROHIBITS THE NICKEL-CADMIUM PLATING OF THE FRONT & REAR CASE FLANGE BOLT HOLES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA86MA013
- Event ID
- 20001214X38096
- Case number
- MIA86MA013
- 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: d006a1d07ecfe5f61e4b8f2f5254664642a1f31d3390a773b65878df49a4598e; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:14:17.751Z.