Aircraft Accident Report
Pan American World Airways, clipper 759,
N4737, Boeing 727-235, New Orleans International Airport,
Kenner, Louisiana
July 9, 1982 
NTSB Number AAR-83/02
NTIS Number PB83-910402
available in  hardcopy
 
Executive Summary: On July 9, 1982, Pan American World Airways, Inc., Flight 759 (clipper 759), a Boeing 727-235, N4737, was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Miami, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada, with an en route stop at New Orleans, Louisiana. About 1607:57 central daylight time, Clipper 759, with 7 crewmembers, 1 no revenue passenger on the cockpit jump seat, and 137 passengers on board, began its takeoff from runway 10 at the New Orleans International Airport, Kenner, Louisiana.

At the time of Flight 759's takeoff, there were showers over the east end of the airport and to the east of the airport along the airplane's intended takeoff path. The winds at the time were gusty, variable, and swirling. Clipper 759 lifted off the runway, climbed to an altitude of between 95 feet to about 150 feet above the ground, and then began to descend. The airplane struck a line of trees about 2,376 feet beyond the departure end of runway 10 at an altitude of about 50 feet above the ground. The airplane continued on an eastward track for another 2,234 feet hitting trees and houses and then crashed in a residential area about 4,610 feet from the end of the runway.

The airplane was destroyed during the impact, explosion, and subsequent ground fire. One hundred forty-five persons on board the airplane and 8 persons on the ground were killed in the crash. Six houses were destroyed; five houses were damaged substantially.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the airplane's encounter during the liftoff and initial climb phase of flight with a microburst-induced wind shear which imposed a downdraft and a decreasing headwind, the effects of which the pilot would have had difficulty recognizing and reacting in time for the airplane's descent to be arrested before its impact with trees.

Contributing to the accident was the limited capability of current ground based low level wind shear detection technology to provide definitive guidance for controllers and pilots for use in avoiding low level wind shear encounters.

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