Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Minneapolis St. Paul Intl Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55450
Sunday, September 10, 2000 9:38 CDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
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.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The fatigue failure of the wheel assembly. A factor was the inadequate inspection procedures prior to the issuance of a service bulletin.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 9/10/2000 |
| Event Day of the Week | Sunday |
| Time of Event | 938 |
| Event Time Zone | Central Daylight Time |
| Event City | MINNEAPOLIS |
| Event State | MINNESOTA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 55450 |
| Event Date Year | 2000 |
| Event Date Month | 9 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | MINNEAPOLIS ST. PAUL INTL |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | MSP |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | On Airport |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 0 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | 0 |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Not pertinent |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 953 Central Daylight Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | MSP |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 841 |
| 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 | 20000 |
| 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) | 66 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 45 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 0 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Variable |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 0 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| 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 | 101 |
| Injury Total Serious | -- |
| Injury Total All | -- |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 10730 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA |
| NTSB Notification Date | Sep 11 2000 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 900 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 17 2001 9:02AM |
| User who most recently changed record | NTSB\MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N296SC |
| NTSB Number | CHI00LA296 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Boeing |
| Aircraft Model | 727-224 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | 727-224 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 22449 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 190500 |
| 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 | 179 |
| Number of Engines | 3 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | -- |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | -- |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | PEGASUS AVIATION, INC. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | 4 EMBACADERO CTR. STE 3550 |
| Aircraft Owner City | SAN FRANCISCO |
| Aircraft Owner State | CA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 94111 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | SUN COUNTRY AIRLINES |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | 2520 PILOT KNOB RD. SUITE 250 |
| Operator City | MENDOTA HEIGHTS |
| Operator State | MN |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | 55120 |
| Operator Code | |
| 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 Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Unknown |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | Yes |
| Departure Airport Code | MSP |
| Departure City | |
| Departure State | |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 925 |
| Departure Time Zone | CDT |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | SFO |
| Destination City | SAN FRANCISCO |
| Destination State | CA |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Taxi |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Oct 1 2001 8:51AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |