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American Airlines Boeing 727-223 incident

26 Dec 1982 · Memphis, TN, United States

Boeing 727-223 · Incident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid on approach

From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
FTW83IA086
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
N6810
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), DALLAS/FT WORTH, TXTo not recorded
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 · VFR go-around
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
Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
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

  • Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Memphis, TN, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

DURING A GO-AROUND FROM AN ILS APPROACH, THE LEFT WING TIP WAS DRAGGED. THIS RESULTED IN MINOR DAMAGE TO THE LEADING EDGE SLATS, TRAILING EDGE FLAPS AND OUTBOARD FLAP TRACK HOUSING ON THE LEFT WING. AN UNEVENTFUL LANDING WAS MADE AFTER THE GO-AROUND. THE AIRCRAFT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY FERRIED TO THE COMPANY'S MAINTENANCE FACILITY WHERE THE FLIGHT DIRECTOR WAS REMOVED.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW83IA086
Event ID
20020917X04672
Case number
FTW83IA086
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: 280eb5fd81b5b04bd18d0c71ac3a76a873c513c260700314d1f47822ef55d0de; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:03:40.544Z.