Saint Louis - Chicago

On August 27, 1988 at 04:50 PM, Saint Louis - Chicago experienced a crash involving Boeing 727-100, operated by Trans World Airlines - TWA, with the event recorded near Chicago-O'Hare Illinois.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

68 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 68 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 6, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 62, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. Scheduled domestic part 121 flight could not get landing gear to extend on approach to Chicago-Midway Airport. After missed approach, crew tried unsuccessfully to extend gear manually using procedures in cockpit checklist and flight operations manual. Emergency gear-up landing was made at Chicago-O'Hare International Airport. Investigation revealed a disconnected gear selector actuating rod from the normal landing gear retract/extension actuating assembly. Crew damaged manual gear extension mechanism in manual extension attempts. FAA approved procedural checklist had omitted critical step in manual gear extension procedure.

Aircraft reference details include registration N852TW, MSN 18571, year of manufacture 1964.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 41.9828°, -87.8434°.