Boeing 767-232 N105DA

Summary

On 27 March 1997 at about 14:45 local time, a Boeing 767-232 registered N105DA was involved in an incident near Dfw Airport, Texas, United States. 198 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

27 March 1997 at 14:45

Classification

Incident

Location

Dfw Airport, Texas, United States

Nearest airport

Dallas-Ft. Worth Intl (DFW)

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Boeing 767-232

Registration

N105DA

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Orlando → Unknown

Aircraft damage

Minor

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

FTW97IA144

Nobody was injured.

The manufacturer's improper installation of the flap, which resulted in fatigue cracking of the flap attach bolts and separation of the flap.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

During the landing approach, with the flaps extended to 15 degrees and the spoilers deployed, an 18-foot section of the right outboard flap separated from the trailing edge of the right wing. After making a flyby of the tower to allow controllers to view the extent of the damage, the flightcrew landed the airplane without further incident. The flap separation resulted from fatigue cracking of the four aft bolts fastening the flap to the inboard flap carriage support beam. The relief shoulders on three of the bolts exhibited thread contact marks which indicated that the attachment nuts were inserted all the way down to the relief shoulders. Either the bolt grip lengths were longer than necessary for this installation, or not enough shims were installed under the heads of the bolts or attachment nuts. Under these circumstances, the bolts most likely did not receive sufficient preload in tension, since the nuts probably bottomed onto the relief shoulders before the preload could be produced. Maintenance records indicated that the flap had not been removed from the wing since manufacture of the airplane in 1982 and had accumulated 45,577 flight hours and 22,155 flight cycles.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.