United Airlines Boeing 727-222A accident
Boeing 727-222A · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Tampa International Airport (TPA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI83FA251
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Boeing 727-222A
- 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
- N7273U
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, FL
- 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 · roll/run
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Turbine assembly, turbine wheel › Chafed
- Turbine assembly, turbine wheel › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, THE #1 ENG FAILED & THE TAKEOFF WAS ABORTED AT APRX 70 KTS. THE AIRCREW TAXIED THE ACFT CLEAR OF THE RWY & STOPPED ON THE REVERSE HIGH SPEED TURNOFF. THE AIRCREW OF ANOTHER COMPANY ACFT TRANSMITTED THAT THE #1 ENG WAS ON FIRE. THERE WAS NO FIRE WARNING LIGHT IN THE COCKPIT, BUT THE #1 ENG WAS SHUT DOWN & A FIRE EXTINGUISHER WAS DISCHARGED INTO THE ENG. ANOTHER RADIO CALL WAS RECEIVED THAT THE ENG WAS STILL ON FIRE & A SECOND EXTINGUISHER WAS DISCHARGED INTO THE ENG. THE OTHER 2 ENGS WERE ALSO SHUT DOWN & ALL OCCUPANTS WERE EVACUATED USING THE EMERGENCY EXITS. TWO PASSENGERS RECEIVED SERIOUS INJURIES. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE 2ND STAGE TURBINE DISK HAD FRACTURED FROM FATIGUE WHICH INITIATED AT THE BASE OF CAVITIES IN THE BOTTOM OF THE AIR SEAL GROOVE. THE INSIDE & OUTSIDE SURFACESOF THE DISK AIR SEAL GROOVE SHOWED SIGNS OF FRETTING AS IF THE MATING AIR SEAL HAD BEEN MOVING FORE & AFT WITHIN THE GROOVE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI83FA251
- Event ID
- 20001214X43232
- Case number
- CHI83FA251
- 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: 4ddeba9496178b4dcd68bb4bc89807e8b3d6ede1f7b9c6d6e81f99d82921fc7c; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:58:00.373Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N7273U; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, UALA.