Investigation Summary
On the night of March 13, 1990, Alaska Airlines flight N271AF was departing Phoenix for Tucson under instrument flight rules. The weather was characterized by dark night conditions, scattered clouds at 4,100 feet, and light rain. During the takeoff run on Runway 26L, as the Boeing 727 reached approximately 105 knots, the flight crew identified a person standing directly on the runway centerline. The captain immediately veered the aircraft to the right and initiated an aborted takeoff. Although the crew felt an impact, they were able to maintain control and taxi the aircraft back to the ramp. A post-flight inspection confirmed that the left main landing gear had struck the individual. The victim was identified by airport authorities as a 40-year-old male who was a mental patient at a nearby hospital. Investigators were unable to determine how the individual breached airport security to reach the active runway environment. The aircraft, serial number 22003, had been inspected only 10 hours prior to the accident.
Final Conclusions
The National Transportation Safety Board determined the probable cause of the accident to be the unauthorized intrusion onto the runway environment by a pedestrian. Contributing factors included the dark night light conditions and light rain present at the time of the occurrence.
Video Analysis
No video analysis linked for this case file yet.
Airframe & Maintenance
Crew Experience
Captain
Held Airline Transport and Flight Instructor certificates.
Systems & Failure Modes
Left Main Landing Gear
The component of the aircraft that made physical contact with the pedestrian during the takeoff roll.
Interesting Facts
- 01The pedestrian was a 40-year-old male mental patient from a nearby hospital.
- 02The aircraft was traveling at 105 knots when the pedestrian was spotted.
- 03The accident occurred at night during light rain conditions.
- 04The aircraft sustained only minor damage during the collision.
- 05Security investigations could not determine the point of entry for the runway breach.
- 06The aircraft (MSN 22003/1629) had completed a continuous airworthiness inspection just 10 hours before the flight.
Location
NO VERIFIED COORDINATES · Coordinates are the estimate published in the ntsb final report. No map is shown, because a marker here would imply a precision the record does not have.
Reported location: Phoenix, Arizona, United States