TACA Flight 110

Infobox Airliner accident|name=TACA Flight 110
Date=May 24, 1988
Type=Engine flameout
Site=New Orleans, Louisiana
Fatalities=0
Injuries=7
Aircraft Type=Boeing 737-3T0
Origin=Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport, Belize City, Belize
Destination=Louis Armstrong International Airport, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Operator=TACA
Tail Number=N75356
Passengers=38
Crew=7
Survivors =45 (all)

TACA Flight 110 was a Boeing 737-300 traveling from Belize City, Belize to New Orleans, Louisiana, United States that lost power in both engines, but made a successful unpowered landing on a grass levee at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in the Michoud area of eastern New Orleans. The incident happened on May 24, 1988. There were no casualties or serious injuries.

Investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) [http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001213X25693&key=1] concluded that the engines had failed "as a result of an inflight encounter with an area of very heavy rain and hail. A contributing cause of the incident was the inadequate design of the engines and the FAA water ingestion certification standards which did not reflect the waterfall rates that can be expected in moderate or higher intensity thunderstorms."

Initially, it was planned to remove the wings and transport the airplane to a repair facility by barge, but Boeing engineers and test pilots decided to perform an engine change on site and to take off from the grass levee. The 737 was flown to the New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport where other maintenance work was performed. The particular plane was then returned to service, and as of September 2007, it flew for Southwest Airlines. [http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/3606153]

External links

* [http://www.airspacemag.com/issues/2006/august-september/flameout.php Air & Space Magazine]
* [http://www.airfields-freeman.com/LA/Airfields_LA_NewOrleans_E.html Description of the NASA Michoud Facility and Air Traffic Controller's account of the event]
* [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19880524-0 Aviation Safety Network - Profile]
* [http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001213X25693&key=1 NTSB Synopsis]
* [http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=FTW88IA109&rpt=fi NTSB Brief]
* [http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=FTW88IA109&rpt=fa NTSB Final Report]
* [http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/3606153 Discussion of the incident, with photographs of the airplane on the levee]