Boeing 707-323C N751MA

Summary

On 22 February 1996 at about 21:18 local time, a Boeing 707-323C registered N751MA, operated by Millon Air, was involved in an incident near Miami, Florida, United States. 4 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was slightly damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

22 February 1996 at 21:18

Classification

Incident

Location

Miami, Florida, United States

Nearest airport

Miami International (MIA)

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Boeing 707-323C

Registration

N751MA

Category

Airplane

Engines

4

Operator

Millon Air

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Manaus → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Minor

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

MIA96IA084

Nobody was injured.

failure of the flight engineer to follow the appropriate emergency procedure to manually extend the nose landing gear. Factors relating to the incident were: fatigue failure of the utility hydraulic system relief valve, which resulted in an inoperative normal gear extension system; the flight engineer's lack of total time in the incident aircraft; and inadequate training given by the aircraft operator.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

One hour after departure, the aircraft lost all hydraulic fluid from the utility hydraulic system. On approach to Miami, the flight engineer manually extended the main landing gear. Attempts to manually lower the nose landing gear were unsuccessful. A fly-by of the tower indicated the nose gear doors were open and the gear was retracted. The aircraft was landed in this configuration. After the incident, the aircraft was raised, and the nose landing gear was extended using the normal manual extension system. After the aircraft was taken to a hangar, the nose landing gear was retracted and manually extended 4 more times with no evidence of failure or malfunction. The utility hydraulic system relief valve housing failed due to fatigue cracking, resulting in the loss of all hydraulic fluid. The flight engineer had been flying for 21 days as a flight engineer at the operator and had accumulated 25 flight hours. He reported he had 54 total flight hours as flight engineer in the Boeing 707 and 3,800 flight hours as flight engineer in the Douglas DC-8.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.