American Airlines Boeing 727-223 incident
Boeing 727-223 · Incident: on ground/water collision with object during landing
From Memphis, TN to Little Rock, AR
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83IA044
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Boeing 727-223
- 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
- N846AA
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Memphis, TNTo Little Rock, AR
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Proper alignment, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Little Rock, AR, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCREW REPORTED THAT THEY BROKE OUT OF THE CLOUDS AT ABOUT 744 FT AGL WHILE ON AN ILS APPROACH AND THAT THE CEILING WAS RAGGED. AT ABOUT 500 FT AGL, THE CAPTAIN TURNED ON THE WINDSHIELD WIPERS. THE FIRST OFFICER WAS FLYING THE AIRCRAFT FROM THR RIGHT SEAT AND MADE A SMOOTH TOUCHDOWN. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE RAIN BECAME EXTREMELY HEAVY TO THE POINT THAT THE RUNWAY LIGHTS WERE DIFFUSED, BUT STILL SOMEWHAT VISIBLE. THE CAPTAIN TOLD THE FIRST OFFICER THAT THE PLANE WAS DRIFTING LEFT, BUT THE FIRST OFFICER DID NOT DETECT THE DRIFT. THE CAPTAIN TOOK CONTROL, BUT NOT IN TIME TO PREVENT THE AIRCRAFT FROM DRIFTING OFF THE RUNWAY. THREE RUNWAY LIGHTS WERE KNOCKED OUT AND THE PLANE RECEIVED MINOR DAMAGE BEFORE IT WAS STEERED BACK ONTO THE RUNWAY. MARKS ON THE RUNWAY INDICATED THAT THE TIRES HAD HYDROPLANNED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83IA044
- Event ID
- 20020917X04669
- Case number
- FTW83IA044
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-11-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 00fd791ba4c917f15c4121eb123a44c0843e68970a10b17ba5614502bc8a8a0c; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:04:44.018Z.