- Date
- December 26, 1988, 08:45 local (13:45 UTC)
- Place
- Morgantown, WV
- Injuries
- 2 minor, 108 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N8148NBoeing 727-25
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report June 11, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Major Investigations Division
- FAA report
- 19881226056139I
- Case key
- 15911
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
Fuselage skin 'flapped' open between body stations 1090 and 1110 and peeled downward from stringer #4 left to stringer #5 left. A scratch or scribe mark was co-located with the longitudinal crack along stringer #4. The area of damage was located on the aft upper side, fwd of the inlet for the #2 engine. The crack had initiated at multiple origins along the score mark and had grown by fatigue through the thickness of the material. A striation count found that between 3360 and 5040 cycles of fatigue progression were present. The scratch/score was made by use of marking tools during a repair process.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8148N
- Reported as
- Boeing 727-25
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 18972
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-7B, 14,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Operator
- Eastern Air Lines, Inc., doing business as Eastern Air Lines
- Registered owner
- Eastern Airlines, Inc.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- AAIP · March 24, 1988
- Departed
- ROC · Rochester, NY
- Destination
- ATL · Atlanta, GA
- Flight plan
- IFR
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 45
- Certificates
- Commercial, Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane, Helicopter
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 7,552 total · 5,488 in this make and model · 1,390 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Lowest ceiling
- None
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.