TAM Airlines Flight 9755
TAM Linhas Aereas Fokker 100 · Uncontained engine failure leading to uncontrolled decompression
From Recife/Guararapes - Gilberto Freyre International Airport (REC) to Viracopos International Airport (VCP)
Event
- NTSB case
- ENG01RA010
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 88
- Survivors
- 87
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 3
- 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
- Not recorded
Fokker 100
- Flight
- JJ9755
- Aircraft type
- Fokker 100
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- PT-MRN
- Operator
- TAM Linhas Aéreas
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Recife/Guararapes - Gilberto Freyre International Airport (REC)To Viracopos International Airport (VCP)
- 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
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- 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
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe 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
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: Belo Horizonte, near the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.
From the Wikipedia article
On Saturday 15 September 2001, TAM Linhas Aéreas Flight 9755, a Fokker 100 scheduled domestic passenger flight carrying 82 passengers and six crew, departed Recife/Guararapes–Gilberto Freyre International Airport for Viracopos International Airport. During the flight, the plane suffered an uncontained engine failure. Fragments of the engine shattered three cabin windows, causing decompression and blowing the passenger in seat 19E partly out of the plane. The passenger blown out of the window did not survive.
Accident
The aircraft took off from Recife (SBRF) at 17:56, carrying 82 passengers and six crew, heading to Campinas (SBKP). About 70 nautical miles from Belo Horizonte, autothrottle disengaged and the right engine failed. This was followed by an explosive depressurization of the cabin caused by engine debris. Oxygen masks dropped in the cabin, some automatically, some through input by the co-pilot. The crew then initiated an emergency descent. The aircraft landed at 20:42 in Confins (SBCF). The aircraft had severe damage to the engine and light damage to the right wing and fuselage.
The accident investigators concluded that between two and five turbine blades failed, damaging the fan disk and the first three stages of the compressor moved outside the engine, which caused several turbine blades to move with it. One of these turbine blades ripped through the engine nacelle and through the fuselage, causing the aircraft to depressurize. One of the blades entered the aircraft through the window of seat 19, killing its occupant.
Text from the Wikipedia article “TAM Airlines Flight 9755” (revision 1339309824, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: TAM Airlines Flight 9755
- Article
- TAM Airlines Flight 9755
- Revision
- 1339309824 · 2026-02-19 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q85804744
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ENG01RA010
- Event ID
- 20040914X01415
- Case number
- ENG01RA010
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "TAM Airlines Flight 9755" (page 62677098, revision 1339309824); merged with NTSB case ENG01RA010 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata coordinates)
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ENG01RA010
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "TAM Airlines Flight 9755" and NTSB case ENG01RA010, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.