- Date
- August 19, 1983, 18:20 local (Aug 20, 1983, 00:20 UTC)
- Place
- Denver, CO
- Injuries
- 205 uninjured
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N609UABoeing 767
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Major Investigations Division
- Case key
- 15793
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
On this page
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
The acft was descending from FL 410 with the throttles at idle. As power was added at FL 295 the left eng surged & exceeded max EGT. 18 secs later the right eng surged & exceeded its max EGT. The left & right engs were shut down at FL 200 & 177 respectively. The engs were successfully restarted about FL 150. The inability of the engs to accelerate after the manually induced surge was due to contaminated fuel nozzles which significantly reduced combustion chamber efficiencies & which resulted in a subidle stall.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N609UA
- Reported as
- Boeing 767
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 21870
- Airframe hours
- 2,372
- Engine
- P&W JT9D-7R4, 24,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Registered owner
- United Airlines
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Departed
- LAX · Los Angeles, CA
- Flight plan
- IFR
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 55
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine sea, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 358 in this make and model
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 160° at 9 knots
- Visibility
- 40 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 25,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 82 °F, dew point 52 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- DEN, 40 nm away