Boeing 757-232 N671DN

Summary

On 12 February 2000 at about 19:46 local time, a Boeing 757-232 registered N671DN was involved in an accident near San Salvador, El Salvador. 161 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

12 February 2000 at 19:46

Classification

Accident

Location

San Salvador, El Salvador

Nearest airport

El Salvador International (MSLP)

Coordinates

Not recorded

Aircraft

Boeing 757-232

Registration

N671DN

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Atlanta → San Salvador

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

LAX00FA097

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's improper flare which resulted in a bounced landing.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane sustained substantial structural damage to the fuselage in the nose wheel area during landing. The same flight crew flew the airplane from Atlanta to El Salvador and back to Atlanta. Another flight crew boarded the airplane and continued on to Los Angeles. No discrepancies were reported by either of the flight crews or maintenance personnel in El Salvador and Atlanta. After the airplane arrived in Los Angeles, a post flight walk around inspection revealed that the outside of the fuselage buckled on the left side above the nose landing gear door. Further examination disclosed that structural members were bent and fractured in the nose wheel well. The crew that landed in El Salvador stated that the nose gear touched down more firmly than the main landing gear. They completed a post flight inspection, but detected no abnormalities. The flight data recorder was removed and sent to the Safety Board's Vehicle Recorder Laboratory for readout and evaluation. A Safety Board specialist conducted a data comparison for the landings in El Salvador, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. In the El Salvador landing sequence, the air/ground FDR discrete indicated "air" then a second later indicated "ground." A second later it indicate "air" again and then a second later indicated "ground" and remained "ground" for the remainder of the landing roll out. During this phase, a right roll angle developed, while the pitch angle and control column movements were more pronounced than on the other landings. For the Atlanta and Los Angeles landings, the air/ground discrete indicated "air" then a second later indicated "ground" and remained "ground."

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.