NTSB CAROL · Event
Event FTW88IA037
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
IMPROPER DRILLING OF THE CROSS HOLE IN THE SLAT TRACK BEARING BOLT, WHICH LED TO ITS FAILURE FROM FATIGUE CRACKING.
Factual narrative
DURING THE APPROACH TO LANDING THE NUMBER SIX LEADING EDGE SLAT ASSEMBLY FAILED. THE INBOARD SECTION OF THE SLAT HUNG DOWN AND BENT AFT. THE PILOT LANDED THE ACFT WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. METALLURGICAL ANALYSIS OF COMPONENTS REVEALED THAT A SLAT TRACK ROLLER BEARING CONTAINED EVIDENCE OF CORROSION AND SPALLING. ADDITIONALLY, THE SLAT TRACK BEARING BOLT THAT HAD BEEN INSTALLED THROUGH THE ABOVE MENTIONED BEARING HAD HEAVY CIRCUMFERENTIAL GOUGES CONTAINED IN THE SURFACE OF A CROSS-DRILLED HOLE AT THE AREAS OF FATIGUE INITIATION. THERE WAS ALSO EVIDENCE OF TEARING, TYPICAL OF DAMAGE PRODUCED DURING DRILLING WITH A DULL DRILL BIT. THE AIRPLANE HAD COMPLETED A MAJOR STRUCTURAL MAINTENANCE CHECK 48 FLIGHT HOURS AND 28 CYCLES PRIOR TO THE INCIDENT. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1987_FTW88IA037.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Conference paper
The Value of Strong Partnerships to Build a Successful Aviation Maintenance Career Pathway Program for Transitioning Military Service Members
The aerospace industry is competing with other industries for a qualified workforce, and many of those competing industries are investing heavily in creating workforce development pipelines.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The implementation of predictive maintenance (PM) in aviation presents unique challenges due to strict safety requirements, complex operational environments, and regulatory constraints.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
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