- Date
- August 27, 1988, 16:50 local (21:50 UTC)
- Place
- Chicago, IL
- Injuries
- 7 minor, 61 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N852TWBoeing 727-31
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report July 9, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19880827071829A
- Case key
- 13968
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Improper procedural checklist in which a critical step was not listed.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
Scheduled domestic part 121 flight could not get landing gear to extend on approach to Chicago midway airport. After missed approach, crew tried unsuccessfully to extend gear manually using procedures in cockpit checklist and flight operations manual. Emergency gear-up landing was made at Chicago o'hare international airport. Investigation revealed a disconnected gear selector actuating rod from the normal landing gear retract/extension actuating assembly. Crew damaged manual gear extension mechanism in manual extension attempts. FAA approved procedural checklist had omitted critical step in manual gear extension procedure.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N852TW
- Reported as
- Boeing 727-31
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 18571
- Airframe hours
- 56,099
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-7B, 14,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines, doing business as Trans World Airlines
- Registered owner
- Trans World Airlines, Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · April 29, 1988 · 720 hours before
- Departed
- STL · St. Louis, MO
- Destination
- MDW · Chicago, IL
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- ORD · Chicago O'Hare, runway 14L, 10,003 × 150 ft, asphalt
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 51
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 16,899 total · 6,411 in this make and model · 5,266 as pilot in command · 195 in the last 90 days · 76 in the last 30 days · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 210° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 5 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 1,400 ft broken
- Temperature
- 61 °F, dew point 61 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- ORD, 1 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.