Pan American World Airways, in Boeing 727-235 accident
Boeing 727-235 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From Miami International Airport (MIA) to C · Orlando, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA82FA051
- 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 727-235
- 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
- N4734
- Operator
- Pan American World Airways, in
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FLTo C · Orlando, 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
- Partial 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
- Compressor assembly › Failure, total
- Compressor assembly › Fatigue
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING TAKEOFF ROLL A LOUD BANG WAS HEARD & THE TAKEOFF ABORTED. THE TOWER ADVISED THE FLT OF EXTENSIVE FIRE IN THE TAILAREA. THE PLT CLEARED THE ACTIVE RWY & THE ACFT WAS EVACUATED. 1 PAX SUFFERED A FRACTURED ANKLE & ANOTHER A SPRAINED ANKLE. AN EXPLOSION HAD OCCURRED IN THE #2 ENG DUE TO A FAILED FRONT COMPRESSOR FRONT HUB. THE MAIN FUEL SUPPLY LINE TO THE #2 ENG WAS SEVERED CAUSING THE FIRE. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED THAT THE HUB FRACTURED RADIALLY THROUGH THE BORE & RIM IN TWO LOCATIONS RELEASING TWO SECTIONS. FATIGUE HAD ORIGINATED AT A NONCONFORMING CIRCUMFERENTIAL GROOVE AT THE REAR OF ONE TIE ROD HOLE. THE SURFACE OF THE GROOVE EXHIBITED A VERY ROUGH, SMEARED APPEARANCE & THERE WERE NUMEROUS AXIAL CRACKS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA82FA051
- Event ID
- 20020917X02404
- Case number
- MIA82FA051
- 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: ceb1ac71c84f96b3096faa2ae31f1b23803cfa7254d820dca632170f8c3332dc; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:12:15.686Z.