Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Lambert St Louis Intl Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Saint Louis, Missouri 63101
Thursday, May 15, 1997 10:25 CDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
About 28 minutes after takeoff, while climbing through FL290, the flight crew heard a loud bang of short duration. A check of the airplane was performed with no abnormalities discovered, except for a slight vibration near the left wing area. Postflight examination of the airplane revealed the left main landing gear strut door had separated from the airplane. Also under-wing damage was noted in that area. There was evidence that initial failure of the door mounting points occurred when the crew heard the loud noise, but final separation of the door occurred during final approach for landing. The door landed in downtown Saint Louis. During examination of the door's lower forward mounting bracket, rounded threads were found on the mounting eyebolt, and associated hardware was missing. The missing hardware consisted of a spacer, washer, castellated nut and cotter pin. All other mounting points had signs of overload fractures. Maintenance was last performed in this area on 5/7/97.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
failure of company maintenance personnel to properly install a mounting eyebolt (and associated cotter pin, washer, spacer and castellated nut) on the lower forward bracket of the left main landing gear strut door.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Incident |
| Event Date | 5/15/1997 |
| Event Day of the Week | Thursday |
| Time of Event | 1025 |
| Event Time Zone | Central Daylight Time |
| Event City | SAINT LOUIS |
| Event State | MISSOURI |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 63101 |
| Event Date Year | 1997 |
| Event Date Month | 5 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | |
| Event Location Longitude | |
| Event Location Airport | LAMBERT ST LOUIS INTL |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | STL |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 5 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 120 |
| Airport Elevation | 605 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Full |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1155 Central Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | STL |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 605 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 0 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | CDT |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 10000 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 16 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -1 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 320 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 19 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 24 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | 711 |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | None |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 187 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 5014 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | May 15 1997 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 1526 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 8 2000 12:16PM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N11003 |
| NTSB Number | CHI97IA134 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Minor |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Lockheed |
| Aircraft Model | L-1011-385-1 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | L-1011-385 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 193B-1015 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 430000 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 271 |
| Number of Engines | 3 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Feb 28 1997 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 554 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | TRANS WORLD AIRLINES |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 1 CITY CENTER 515 N 6TH STREET |
| Aircraft Owner City | SAINT LOUIS |
| Aircraft Owner State | MO |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 63101 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | TWAA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger/Cargo |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Unknown |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | MCO |
| Departure City | ORLANDO |
| Departure State | FL |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 801 |
| Departure Time Zone | CDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | STL |
| Destination City | |
| Destination State | |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Climb |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 2 2001 10:30AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 30L |
| Runway Length | 11019 |
| Runway Width | 200 |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |