Delta Air Lines Flight 1581
Boeing 737-232 · Aviation accident
From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92IA055
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 44
- 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
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Boeing 737-232
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N322DL
- Operator
- Delta Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)To George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, TX
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Engine tearaway
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Installation, improper
- Engine installation, mounting bolt › Failure, total
- Engine installation, mounting bolt › Fatigue
- Engine installation, suspension mounts › Disconnected
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Delta Air Lines Flight 1581 was an aviation accident that took place on 7 January 1992 in Dallas, United States. A Boeing 737-200 aircraft lost an engine after taking off from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Accident
The Boeing 737-200 took off from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport at 1:30 pm CST. And it lost the right engine on takeoff towards George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The pilots were able to land the aircraft in about 12 minutes at 1:42 PM CST.
The aircraft remained on the runway while the passengers were transferred to the airport terminal. Most of the passengers on board the aircraft were placed on other flights to Houston.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the Spanish Wikipedia article “Vuelo 1581 de Delta Air Lines” (revision 168637188, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
THE RIGHT ENGINE SEPARATED FROM THE WING AS THE AIRPLANE WAS CLIMBING THROUGH 200 FEET AFTER TAKEOFF. FOLLOWING THE ENGINE SEPARATION, THE CREW CONTINUED THE CLIMB AND WERE VECTORED FOR AN UNEVENTFUL LANDING WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. ENGINE SEPARATION WAS THE RESULT OF THE FAILURE OF THE AFT CONE BOLT AND THE ENGINE SECONDARY SUPPORT ASSEMBLY. THE AFT CONE BOLT FAILED AS RESULT OF A PREEXISTING FATIGUE CRACK, WHILE THE ENGINE SECONDARY SUPPORT ASSEMBLY FAILED AS RESULT OF THE DYNAMIC LOADS THAT EXCEEDED THE DESIGNED CAPACITY OF THE MOUNTING BOLTS. THE TWO FORWARD CONE BOLTS FAILED IN OVERLOAD AS THE ENGINE SWUNG FORWARD DURING THE SEPARATION SEQUENCE. METALLURGICAL TESTING REVEALED THAT THE FATIGUE OF THE AFT CONE BOLT WAS A RESULT OF LUBRICANT INADVERTENTLY INTRODUCED INTO THE CONICAL SURFACE OF THE CONE BOLT.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE AFT CONE BOLT AS RESULT OF PREEXISTING FATIGUE CRACKING DUE TO IMPROPER MAINTENANCE, AND THE FAILURE OF THE SECONDARY SUPPORT STRUCTURE AS A RESULT OF LOADS THAT EXCEEDED THE CAPACITY OF THE ATTACHING HARDWARE AND THE CRUSHABLE HONEYCOMB CORE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Spanish Wikipedia article: Vuelo 1581 de Delta Air Lines
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 168637188 · 2025-07-24 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q108871629
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record FTW92IA055
- Event ID
- 20001211X13985
- Case number
- FTW92IA055
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- es Wikipedia article "Vuelo 1581 de Delta Air Lines" (page 10046368, revision 168637188), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case FTW92IA055 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record FTW92IA055: NTSB API eventDate, eventTimeUtc and eventTimeUtcOffsetHours (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17); country from NTSB record FTW92IA055
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record FTW92IA055: aircraft; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record FTW92IA055: operated under Part 121: Air Carrier
- Fatalities
- NTSB record FTW92IA055: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record FTW92IA055: NTSB API ongroundFatal
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Delta Air Lines Flight 1581" and NTSB case FTW92IA055, 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.
- 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.