Eastern Airlines Boeing 727-225 accident
Boeing 727-225 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Miami International Airport (MIA) to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA86AA014
- 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 727-225
- 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
- N802EA
- Operator
- Eastern Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FLTo Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DC
- 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 final 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Landing gear, gear locking mechanism › Corroded
- Pilot in command › Gear extension, not possible
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE RT MAIN LNDG GEAR WOULD NOT EXTEND FOR LNDG AT WASH NATL ARPT. THE LNDG WAS ABORTED AND THE CREW ATTEMPTED TO CORRECT THE SITUATION BUT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. AN EMERGENCY GEAR-UP LNDG WAS MADE AT DULLES INTERNATL ARPT. THE CREW AND PASSG EVACUATED WITHOUT INJURY. POST ACC EXAM SHOWED THAT THE RT DOWNLOCK LINK BEARING HAD CORRODED AND SEIZED; BOEING PART #BACB10B107J. THERE IS NO EXTERNAL PROVISION FOR LUBRICATION OF THIS PART AND NO REQUIRMENT FOR DISASSEMBLY TO INSPECT OR LUBRICATE. AN 'INSTALLED' INSPECTION WAS DONE AT 'A' CHECKS EACH 130 HRS AND 'C' CHECKS EVERY 36 DAYS. THE MOST RECENT WAS AN 'A' CHECK ON 10/28/85.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA86AA014
- Event ID
- 20010110X00148
- Case number
- DCA86AA014
- 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: 9048334ecc846f728f629e44c1226350fab6449dc242844c9c70df15e18f9588; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:09:38.303Z.