- Date
- May 24, 1988, 12:55 local (17:55 UTC)
- Place
- New Orleans, LA
- Injuries
- 45 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N75356Boeing 737-3T0
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 25, 1991
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19880524032219I
- Case key
- 22574
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
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Probable cause
A double engine flameout due to water ingestion which occurred as a result of an inflight encounter with an area of very heavy rain and hail. A contributing cause of the incident was the inadequate design of the engines and the FAA water ingestion certification standards which did not reflect the waterfall rates that can be expected in moderate or higher intensity thunderstorms.
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
Drg dscnt fm FL 350 for IFR arr to New Orleans, flt crew noted green & yellow rtrns on wx radar with some isolated red cells, left & rgt of intended flt path. Bfr entering clouds at 30,000', capt slctd continuous eng ignition & activated eng anti-ice sys. Crew slctd route bet 2 cells, displayed as red on wx radar. Hvy rain, hail & turbc were enctrd. At ABT16,500', both engs flamed out. APU was started & ac elec pwr was restored while dscndg thru abt 10,600'. Atmts to wind- mill restart were unsuccessful. Both engs lit-off by using starters, but neither would accelerate to idle; advng thrust levers increased EGT byd limits. Engs were shut down to avoid catastrophic failure. Emerg lndg was made on levee w/o further dmg to acft. Inv revealed acft enctrd lvl 4 tstm, but engs flamed out, though they had met FAA specs for water ingestion. Acft had minor hail dmg; #2 eng was dmgd fm overtemp. After incident, omb 88-5 & AD 6-14-88 issued to rqr minrpm of 45% & to restr use of autothrust in mod/hvy precip; eng mod was provided for increased cpty of wtr ingestion.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N75356
- Reported as
- Boeing 737-3T0
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 23838
- Airframe hours
- 81
- Engine
- GE CFM56-3B1, 20,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Part 129
- Operator
- Taca International Airlines
- Registered owner
- Polaris Aircraft Leasing Corp.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · May 20, 1988 · 10 hours before
- Departed
- BZE · Belize City, OF
- Destination
- MSY
- Flight plan
- IFR
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 29
- Certificates
- Foreign, 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
- 13,410 total · 4,011 in this make and model · 10,900 as pilot in command · 240 in the last 90 days · 85 in the last 30 days · 6 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 170° at 10 knots
- Visibility
- 8 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 4,500 ft broken
- Temperature
- 77 °F, dew point 72 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- NEW, 5 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.