Boeing 757 N173AN

Summary

On 6 September 2018 at about 16:45 local time, a Boeing 757 registered N173AN, operated by American Airlines, was involved in an accident near New York, New York, United States. 113 people were on board and one was seriously injured, 2 had minor injuries. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

6 September 2018 at 16:45

Classification

Accident

Location

New York, New York, United States

Coordinates

40.6400, -73.7786

Aircraft

Boeing 757

Registration

N173AN

Category

Airplane

Year built

2002

Engines

2

Operator

American Airlines

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Edinburgh → New York

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

Unk

Light

Day

NTSB number

DCA18LA285

1 person was seriously injured.

The flight crew’s failure to adequately monitor the airplane’s airspeed, which led to the captain’s aggressive control inputs to increase airspeed; these aggressive inputs resulted in injuries to three cabin crewmembers.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The airplane was descending toward the destination airport with the autopilot and autothrottle systems engaged. As the airplane was approaching 12,000 ft, and the autopilot was capturing the altitude, the captain adjusted the altimeter resulting in a displayed altitude of 12,100 ft. The captain (the pilot flying) selected flight level change mode on the autopilot to recapture the altitude and set the speed at 250 knots to slow from about 255 knots. As a result, the autothrottles went to Throttle Hold mode when the throttle levers reached the aft stop. As the captain was briefing the approach, the airplane slowed and pitched up as it tried to maintain altitude with a reduced throttle setting. An international relief officer who was in the cockpit at the time commented on the airplane’s decreasing speed three times when the airplane’s airspeed was about 186 knots before stating that the captain should push the nose over. The captain disengaged the autopilot and auto throttles, aggressively pitched down, and increased the throttles. These aggressive maneuvers caused the flight attendants in the aft galley to be thrown against the ceiling. One flight attendant sustained a compound arm fracture; two other flight attendants sustained minor injuries. The crew subsequently landed the airplane without further incident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.