- Date
- August 25, 1989, 11:37 local (16:37 UTC)
- Place
- Kenner, LA
- Injuries
- 149 uninjured
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Phase of flight
- Initial climb
- Aircraft
- N52309Boeing 727-231
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 26, 1992
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Safety recommendations
- Yes
- Case key
- 22801
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the incident.
On this page
Probable cause
Inaccurate operators procedures/directives and the improper takeoff performance data computed by the captain. Poor flight crew coordination was considered a factor as well a wrong runway selection for the computed takeoff data.
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 scheduled passenger flight was dispatched with 15 degrees flap takeoff performance data for runway 10/28, which was 9,228 feet long. Takeoff actually was from runway 19, which was 7,000 feet long. The airplane lifted from the surface in the safety area of the departure end of the runway and the left main landing gear struck a lighting control box for the rail system. A portion of the landing gear scupper separated from the airplane. The flight continued to its destination and landed without further incident. Prior to departure, the flight engineer filled in his portion of the takeoff data sheet and handed it to the captain. The captain anticipated that runway 10 would be the departure runway and he performed takeoff data calculations using runway 10 data. ATIS information and taxi clearance called for takeoff on runway 19. The operator's procedures did not assign takeoff data calculations to a specific crew member. Procedures also did not call for verification of such information by other crew
Aircraft
- Registration
- N52309
- Reported as
- Boeing 727-231
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 19828
- Airframe hours
- 52,825
- Engine
- P&W JT8D-9A, 15,000 lbs thrust, turbo fan
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Part 121
- Registered owner
- Cis Corporation
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Transport
- Last inspection
- Continuous airworthiness · June 1, 1989 · 685 hours before
- Destination
- JFK · New York, NY
- Flight plan
- IFR
- Airport
- MSY · New Orleans Int'L, runway 19, 7,000 × 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
- 44
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 1, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 18,214 total · 1,565 in this make and model · 551 as pilot in command · 111 in the last 90 days · 54 in the last 30 days · 7 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 80° at 4 knots
- Visibility
- 12 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 88 °F, dew point 79 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MSY