US Airways Boeing 757-225 incident
Boeing 757-225 · Incident: airframe, component or system failure while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- ENG08IA001
- 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
- Unknown
Boeing 757-225
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 757
- 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
- N919UW
- Operator
- US Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Standing · engine(s) not operating
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Landing gear, main gear › Improperly serviced
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, not complied with
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On October 28, 2007, a US Airways Boeing 757-200, N919UW, experienced a fracture of the truck beam on the left hand (LH) main landing gear (MLG) while preparing for departure from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (CLT). The airplane was loaded with flight crew, cabin crew, passengers and cargo at the time of the truck beam failure. There was no other damage to the airplane and there were no injuries to any of the occupants or the ground personnel. The truck beam had accumulated 24,025 cycles since new and 2,707 cycles since its last overhaul which occurred in May, 2005.
The truck beam fracture initiated by fatigue and stress corrosion cracking from pits that were present on the ID surface of the truck beam, under the protective finishes. Crack propagation occurred by alternating modes of stress corrosion cracking and fatigue until final fracture occurred by ultimate ductile separation. The condition of the surface finishes and base metal at the fracture initiation area indicated that the pitting was present before the last application of cadmium plating and primer, rather than the result of corrosion since the last overhaul. The observed pitting appeared to be remnants of incomplete corrosion removal during the last overhaul. Residual stress analysis of the ID surface in the fracture initiation region suggested that the blended area did not receive adequate peening to restore typical residual compressive stresses. The observed reduction in residual compressive stresses likely contributed to the fracture initiation. The wall thickness at the area of fracture initiation measured 0.29” and was within drawing dimensional tolerances. Chemical analysis and hardness testing verified that the truck beam was fabricated from the required material in the specified heat treated condition. Evaluation of the protective finishes on the truck beam indicated that the cadmium plating on the ID surface did not meet the minimum thickness requirements.
Probable cause
The truck beam fracture initiated by fatigue and stress corrosion cracking from pits that were present on the ID surface of the truck beam, under the protective finishes. Crack propagation occurred by alternating modes of stress corrosion cracking and fatigue until final fracture occurred by ultimate ductile separation. The condition of the surface finishes and base metal at the fracture initiation area indicated that the pitting was present before the last application of cadmium plating and primer, rather than the result of corrosion since the last overhaul. The observed pitting appeared to be remnants of incomplete corrosion removal during the last overhaul.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ENG08IA001
- Event ID
- 20081219X65251
- Case number
- ENG08IA001
- 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, coordinates. 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: 11bbe7fe0f4d51bdf359fd87be81d607ceb26899ead009ed74c76aa91cb7fea0; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:40:53.595Z.