NYC84IA271 · Boeing 727-232
Boeing 727-232 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC84IA271
- 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 727-232
- 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
- N518PE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJTo Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF), Buffalo, NY
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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 › Failure, partial
- Flight control, flap › Failure, total
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE DEPARTURE FROM NEWARK, NJ, THE AIRCREW NOTED A VIBRATION WHICH CEASED AFTER THE GEAR WAS RETRACTED. THE CREW SUSPECTED THAT A TIRE WAS OUT-OF-ROUND OR A GEAR DOOR WAS VIBRATING & CONTINUED THE FLT. DURING THE APCH TO BUFFALO, NY, THE VIBRATION OCCURRED AGAIN WHEN THE LANDING GEAR WAS EXTENDED, BUT CEASED ON FINAL APCH. THE APCH & LANDING WERE CONTINUED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. AFTER LANDING, AN EXAM OF THE ACFT, GEAR & GEAR DOORS REVEALED NO REASON FOR THE VIBRATION. HOWEVER, DURING THE FLT, A PIECE OF THE LEFT TRAILING EDGE FLAP HAD SEPARATED. IT HAD SEPARATED ON FINAL APCH & HAD HIT A PARKED CAR CAUSING MINOR DAMAGE. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF IMPROPER SURFACE PREPARATION & BONDING DURING A PREVIOUS REPAIR OF THE FLAP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC84IA271
- Event ID
- 20001214X40470
- Case number
- NYC84IA271
- 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: 06c3d2a94488052354069b3013c1e465ca4ddc31f1029d973ce7eceb6f25a155; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:38:19.985Z.