Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505
Boeing 727 · Runway overrun: pilot error
From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Cyril E. King Airport (STT)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 55
- Survivors
- 53
- 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
- 51
- 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
- Flight
- TR505
- 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
- N8790R
- Operator
- Trans Caribbean Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)To Cyril E. King Airport (STT)
- 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 (scheduled international passenger service)
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Improper level off
- Pilot in command › Improper recovery from bounced landing
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505 was a regularly scheduled domestic flight operating from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Harry S, Truman Airport, with a stopover in Isla Verde International Airport. On December 28, 1970, the aircraft operating the flight, a Boeing 727-2A7, overran runway 09 at Harry S, Truman Airport, killing 2 of the 55 occupants on board and injuring 51 of the 53 survivors.
This is the only fatal crash of an airliner for Trans Caribbean Airways.
Accident
Flight 505 took off from Isla Verde International Airport in Puerto Rico at 2:27 pm after an uneventful flight from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The flight up until the landing at Harry S. Truman Airport was also routine. The weather conditions at Saint Thomas were windy, but clear. At about 30 feet above the runway, the plane seemed to drop, with the airspeed dropping 5 knots below the reference speed, The aircraft almost immediately bounced to about 50 feet into the air, and the captain extended the speedbrake, causing the aircraft to drop even faster. According to passenger interviews after the second touchdown, "The plane hit so hard it literally shook the stuffings out of the whole plane." The sound of grinding metal, presumably the right main landing gear collapsing, could be heard on the CVR as the aircraft bounced up into the air for the 2nd time. The first officer then made an extreme nose down input, before pulling all the way back on the control column. The captain then called for a go-around, however, the flight engineer was against going around. The flaps were retracted to the 25° as the aircraft struck the runway for the third time. At this time, the CVR stopped recording, with the last thing said being the flight engineer exclaiming, "They're coming up -- but you're not goin' to make it -- you're gonna kill us!" The aircraft also overran the runway, with engine 3 suffering a compressor stall. The remains of the right landing gear and part of the right wingtip then struck a sidewalk, then a truck, which had been evacuated seconds before. The aircraft, still carrying momentum, skidded up a hill, before stopping and catching on fire. Two passengers were killed and 51 of the 53 survivors were injured.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
An investigation into the crash was quickly launched by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The investigation lasted one year and one day. A preliminary report into the accident was released on April 9, 1971. The final report into the accident was released on December 29, 1971. The probable cause of the accident was stated by the NTSB to be as follows:The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the captain's use of improper techniques in recovering from a high bounce generated by a poorly executed approach and touchdown. Lack of cockpit crew coordination during the approach and attempted recovery contributed to the accident.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505” (revision 1364857844, 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
NTSB remarks
HI BOUNCE FRM POOR APCH-T/D.USED IMPROPER RCVRY TECH.LACK OF COCKPIT CREW COORD CONTRB TO ACDNT.
NTSB's remark from its 1962–1981 archive, as recorded (abbreviated, at most 98 characters): the archive has no narrative
Sources
Wikipedia article: Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505
- Revision
- 1364857844 · 2026-07-18 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q134376219
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record
- Event ID
- 19701228P033603
- Case number
- Unknown
- Dataset
- historical-pre1982
- Source SHA-256
- abe1a933b4b73583d61684309f7f0610c281e3c1de3537c6471bf2a98ba6481d
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505" (page 79759759, revision 1364857844); merged with NTSB case NTSB19701228P033603 (PRE1982 tblFirstHalf (one row per aircraft, grouped by date, place and time))
- Date
- NTSB record NTSB19701228P033603: PRE1982 DATE_OCCURRENCE
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record NTSB19701228P033603
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record NTSB19701228P033603: PRE1982 REGIST_NO, ACFT_MAKE, ACFT_MODEL; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record NTSB19701228P033603: operated under Part 121: Air carrier (scheduled intl passg service)
- Fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19701228P033603: PRE1982 TOTAL_ABRD_FATAL of each aircraft, plus people on the ground and others outside the aircraft
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19701228P033603: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Trans Caribbean Airways Flight 505" and NTSB case NTSB19701228P033603, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- From NTSB's 1962-1981 archive (PRE1982), which holds at most a short remark (98 characters, abbreviated) instead of a narrative; the accident type, phase of flight, causes and conditions are NTSB's codes, decoded as the archive defines them.
- Reviewed means this record passed the site's consistency check, not that it was checked against a narrative or report - there is none to check against.
- The operation category is mapped from the archive's operator and operation codes and has not been reviewed.