Boeing 727

The Boeing 727 is close to gone from passenger service, and its record belongs to another era of flying. Up to 7 October 2026 it has 70 fatal events in our data. 44 count, in about 63 million passenger flights, and 35 of those happened before 1990. Few came from a fault in the aircraft. Most were flights into high ground, windshear and mid-air collisions, the main killers of the 1960s to 1980s, before modern warning systems.

What the 727 is and where it still flies

The 727 has three engines at the tail, under a T-tail, and wings packed with flaps and slats so it could use short runways. It first flew in 1963 and entered service in 1964. Boeing built 1,832 in two lengths, the 727-100 and the stretched 727-200, and it was for years the best-selling jetliner in the world. It has an analogue cockpit and a crew of three, with a flight engineer.

American, United, Delta and Eastern built their domestic networks on it. Today about 20 remain, mostly freighters with small cargo operators in Africa and Latin America, plus a few private and government jets. Scheduled passenger 727s are now essentially gone.

Terrain, windshear and collisions

Twenty of the 44 counted accidents are flights into terrain. On 1 December 1974, TWA 514, diverted to Washington Dulles in cloud, took an early approach clearance as permission to descend and hit Mount Weather. All 92 died. Others hit mountains near Isparta in 1976 (154 dead), Tenerife in 1980 (Dan-Air, 146), Bilbao in 1985 (Iberia 610, 148), Cúcuta in 1988 (Avianca 410, 143) and Medellín in 1993 (SAM, 132).

Windshear was the other big killer. On 24 June 1975, Eastern 66 flew into a thunderstorm on the approach to New York JFK and hit the approach lights; 113 of 124 died. On 9 July 1982, Pan Am 759 met a microburst just after take-off from New Orleans, killing all 145 on board and eight people on the ground. Crashes like these drove the research into downbursts and the windshear alerts now fitted at airports and on aircraft.

Four counted accidents were mid-air collisions. On 25 September 1978 a PSA 727 overtook a Cessna it had lost sight of near San Diego; all 135 on board and seven on the ground died. A training fighter hit an ANA 727 over Japan in 1971 (162 dead), and a MiG-23 hit a Libyan Arab Airlines 727 near Tripoli in 1992 (159).

Accidents the aircraft played a part in

• 31 March 1986, Mexicana 940: a main-gear tyre filled with air instead of nitrogen overheated and exploded in cruise, and the fire that followed brought the jet down. All 167 died, the deadliest 727 accident.
• 31 August 1988, Delta 1141, Dallas/Fort Worth: the crew began the take-off without flaps and slats, and the warning system failed to alert them. 14 of 108 died. The same chain later killed 154 on a Spanair MD-80 at Madrid.
• 25 December 2003, Cotonou: a 727 of Union des Transports Africains de Guinée, loaded far beyond its limits, barely climbed and broke up on the beach. 141 of 163 died.

The last counted accidents were in 2011: Iran Air 277 stalled after a missed approach in heavy snow at Urmia (78 of 105 died), and a Hewa Bora 727 crashed in a storm at Kisangani (77 of 115).

What is left out

Seventeen acts of violence are listed but not counted, including Libyan Arab Airlines 114, shot down by Israeli fighters over Sinai in 1973 (108 dead), and Avianca 203, bombed after leaving Bogotá in 1989 (107). Nine cargo, ferry and training crashes are also left out. Our methodology explains why.

How to tell if you are on one

Flight trackers show B721 or B722. Three engines at the tail, one fed through an intake above the fuselage, and a T-tail make it hard to mistake.