Date: July 9, 1982
Type: Boeing 727-235
Registration: N4737
Operator: Pan American World Airways, Inc.
Where: Kenner, Loisiana
Report No. NTSB-AAR-83-02
Report Date: March 21, 1983
Pages: 119

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 nonrevenue passenger on the cockpit jumpseat, 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 to in time for 
the airplaneUs 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.