Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-123 incident
Boeing 747-123 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Miami International Airport (MIA) to Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA86IA066
- 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 747-123
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747
- 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
- N9674
- Operator
- Pan American World Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FLTo Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International Airport (CCS), Caracas
- 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
- 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
- None
Cause areas
- Bleed air system, valve › Failure, total
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment, improper
- Miscellaneous eqpt/furnishings, slides › Failure, partial
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTURE THE CREW NOTED SMOKE IN THE CABIN AND THE COCKPIT. THE CAPTAIN DECLARED AN EMERGENCY AND LANDED BACK AT THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. HE THEN DIRECTED AN EMERGENCY EVACUATION. DURING THE EVACUATION SEVERAL EMERGENCY SLIDES FAILED TO DEPLOY AND SEVERAL PASSENGERS RECEIVED INJURIES. THE SLIDES FAILED DUE TO IMPROPER PACKING, MAINTENANCE, AND IMPROPER PARTS. THE SMOKE THAT WAS OBSERVED CAME FROM THE #4 ENGINE #3 BEARING LABYRINTH SEAL THAT LEAKED DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE EVC CONTROLLER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA86IA066
- Event ID
- 20010110X00217
- Case number
- MIA86IA066
- 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, damage. 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: 1b4076779b68c7f0d364532143a754b27c51a12b2055a532ea718c7056d02284; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:09:03.291Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N9674; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, PAAA.