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United Air Lines, Inc., Boeing 727, N7030U, operating as Flight 227, crashed during an attempted landing at Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah, at approximately 1752 m.s.t., on November 11, 1965. Of the 85 passengers and a crew of 5 aboard, there were 43 fatalities, including 2 passengers who succumbed in the hospital several days after the accident. The 48 survivors included all crewmembers.

The flight, scheduled from LaGuardia Airport, New York, to San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, with several intermediate stops, departed Denver at 1654. Shortly after 1748 the flight advised "... Have the runway in sight now, we'll cancel and standby with you for traffic." The high, straight-in approach continued under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Impact occurred 335 feet short of the runway threshold, the main gear sheared, and the aircraft caught fire and slid approximately 2,838 feet on the nose gear and bottom fuselage surface, finally coming to rest approximately 150 feet off the east side of the runway.

The Board determined the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the captain to take timely action to arrest an excessive descent rate during the landing approach.

1.1 History of Flight

United Air Lines (UAL), Boeing 727, N7030U, operating as Flight 227, departed LaGuardia Airport, New York, at 1035.^[1] Regular stops en route to San Francisco, California, included Cleveland, Ohio, Chicago (Midway Airport), Illinois, Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The flight to Denver was routine, and a crew change was accomplished.

Flight 227 departed Denver at 1654 in accordance with an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flight plan. The assigned cruising altitude was Flight Level 310 and the estimated time en route was 57 minutes. Approaching the Salt Lake City area, the ​flight requested the Salt Lake City Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) not to vector them over Provo. A discussion about the new arrival procedure for Runway 34L pointed out that the Lehi intersection,^[2] 13 miles northeast of Provo and 23 miles southeast of the Salt Lake City Municipal Airport,^[3] was the initial fix for westbound arriving aircraft. At 1735:45 clearance was issued to descend at the pilot's discretion to 16,000 feet, and in his acknowledgement the captain requested, "... let me know when we're sixty miles east of Lehi." At 1738:05 the ARTCC controller notified the flight that they were 60 miles east of Lehi and they responded, "Okay we'll start her down." The flight proceeded in accordance with radar vectors, passing 5 miles south-southwest of Lehi where a radar handoff to Salt Lake City Approach Control was effected. New clearance altitudes were given during the continuous descent and at 1747:00 the approach controller advised, "United seventy two twenty seven... five miles south of Riverton Fan Marker coming on localizer course cleared for ILS runway three four left approach." At 1748:10, in response to the controller's request for the aircraft's altitude, the pilot replied "Okay we're slowed to two fifty (Knots) and we're at ten (10,000 feet) we have the runway in sight now, we'll cancel and standby with you for traffic." Control of the flight was transferred to the tower and at 1749:40 landing clearance was issued. At 1752:1 the tower controller reported on the interphone to the watch supervisor, "... United's on fire just landed." The accident occurred in darkness.

The crew stated that during the flight from Denver to Salt Lake City the first officer was flying the aircraft under the direction of the captain. During the descent they penetrated an overcast approximately 6,000 feet thick, with the engine anti-ice on. While in the clouds, at approximately 16,000 feet, idle thrust and speed brakes were selected. At 11,000 feet the speed brakes were retracted and shortly thereafter visual reference with the field was gained. The anti-ice switches were turned off and speed reduction continued to the reference speed^[4] of 123 knots, as the landing gear and 40 degrees of flaps were selected. The flight continued descending at approximately 2,000 feet per minute (See Attachment A) with a full "fly-down" signal on the ILS indicator. The UAL recommended rate of descent during the landing approach is 6-800 feet per minute.

The flight crew testified regarding the sequence of events on the final approach as follows:

CAPTAIN-At approximately 6,500 feet m.s.l. he stopped the first officer from adding power. He estimated that 15-20 seconds later, at approximately 5,500 feet m.s.l., the first officer moved the thrust levers forward. When the engines did not respond, he moved the thrust levers to the takeoff power position, and assumed control of the aircraft. He estimated that this occurred about 1-1/4 miles from the runway at an altitude of 1,000 feet (5,226 feet m.s.l.), and at least 30 seconds prior to impact. Although he glanced at the engine instruments, he did not recall any readings.

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