Boeing 727-224 N296SC

Summary

On 10 September 2000 at about 14:38 local time, a Boeing 727-224 registered N296SC, operated by Sun Country Airlines, was involved in an accident near Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. 101 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

10 September 2000 at 14:38

Classification

Accident

Location

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

Nearest airport

Minneapolis St. Paul Intl (MSP)

Coordinates

44.8792, -93.2208

Aircraft

Boeing 727-224

Registration

N296SC

Category

Airplane

Engines

3

Operator

Sun Country Airlines

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Unknown → San Francisco

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CHI00LA296

Nobody was injured.

The fatigue failure of the wheel assembly. A factor was the inadequate inspection procedures prior to the issuance of a service bulletin.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The Boeing 727-224 number 3 wheel assembly failed during taxi for takeoff and pieces of the wheel assembly impacted the airframe causing damage. Examination of the wheel assembly revealed a fatigue failure that emanated from a point at the inside diameter of one of the brake lugs. A circumferential scratch was found adjacent to the fatigue origin. The wheel half had been inspected by an approved repair station and shipped to the airline on July 21, 2000. The wheel was installed on the accident aircraft and had accumulated 356.2 hours time in service at the time of the accident. A review of repair station records revealed that the repair station had been rejecting about 4 wheel halves per month. Prior to the accident, the repair station was finding cracks on other wheel halves in the area where the wheel failure occurred. The repair station had been in contact with the wheel manufacturer concerning this matter and had sent representative wheel halves to the manufacturer for evaluation. In a conversation with a representative of the Federal Aviation Administration, the wheel manufacturer stated that one of the returned wheel halves had been examined and that a manufacturing defect had created a stress concentrator, which resulted in a fatigue failure of the wheel half. The wheel manufacturer issued a Service Bulletin to rework the lugs and to provide guidance in inspecting the affected areas of the wheel assembly.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.