Trans World Airlines Boeing 727-31 incident
Boeing 727-31 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84IA192
- 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 727-31
- 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
- N855TW
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
AFTER TAKEOFF FLT ATTENDANT REPORTED AFT AIRSTAIR PARTIALLY OPEN. FLT ENGINEER CHECKED & CONFIRMED AIRSTAIR OPEN APRX 18 INCHES. REMEDIAL ACTION PERFORMED TO NO AVAIL. UNSCHEDULED LANDING PERFORMED WITHOUT INCIDENT. AS ACFT TURNED ONTO TAXIWAY AIRSTAIR CONTACTED GROUND. INVESTIGATION DISCLOSED, PRIOR TO DEPT MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR PLACARDED AFT AIRSTAIR WARNING LIGHTS IN THE COCKPIT 'INOPERATIVE.' SUPERVISOR THEN MADE LOGBOOK ENTRY 'AIRSTAIRS CHECKED UP AND LOCKED.' INSPECTION REVEALED PLUNGER ON AFT AIRSTAIR BUNGEE ASS'Y WAS BOUND INSIDE ITS HOUSING DUE TO CORROSION & DIRT INSIDE THE BUSHING THROUGH WHICH PLUNGER SLIDES. MAINTENANCE MIN EQUIP & DISPATCH PROC WHICH WAS PERFORMED WAS TO VERIFY UPLATCH MECHANISM ENGAGED WITH UPLOCK ROLLERS ON AIRSTAIR. A NON-VALID TWA ACFT MAINTENANCE BULLETIN STATED THE ABOVE PROCESS DOES NOT ENSURE THE UPLATCH MECHANISM IS LOCKED AND THAT THE SOFT SURFACES MUST BE IN CONTACT TO VERIFY THE CRANK ARMS ARE LOCKED OVER-CENTER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84IA192
- Event ID
- 20001214X40096
- Case number
- NYC84IA192
- 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: 85c5b9c34265178d59db6eafdfa2d500d3a7a9be9c12d87b184fe24272815903; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:40:59.124Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N855TW; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, TWAA.