The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar had a low fatal accident rate by the standards of its era: Boeing’s figures count four hull losses, three of them with fatalities, over the type’s whole service life. Only 250 were built. Several TriStar flights still became turning points in aviation safety, two of them because of how a crew managed, or failed to manage, a problem in the cockpit.
The TriStar and its rival, the DC-10
The TriStar was Lockheed’s last commercial passenger airliner. It was a wide-body jet with three engines, one under each wing and one in the tail, and it is usually compared with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, the other American three-engine wide-body of the time. Eastern Air Lines, its first customer, began scheduled service on 30 April 1972, according to Lockheed Martin’s history of the aircraft. The company describes an autopilot advanced enough that the aircraft could fly and land on its own by locking on to an airport’s radio beacons.
Delta Air Lines Flight 1080: a jammed elevator, and a landing anyway
On 12 April 1977 Delta Air Lines Flight 1080, a TriStar flying from San Diego to Los Angeles, pitched up by itself just after take-off. Even with the control column fully forward and full nose-down trim, the nose kept rising and the airspeed fell toward a stall.
Captain Jack McMahan worked out that he could control the pitch with the engines. He pulled back the two wing engines and pushed the tail engine to full power, which brought the nose down. The crew found thrust settings that held the aircraft level, moved passengers forward to help the trim, and landed at Los Angeles. All 52 people on board were unhurt.
The left elevator had jammed fully up. The NTSB found that moisture, drawn in through repeated pressurisation cycles, had corroded a bearing in the elevator crank. We have not found the NTSB report online, so the account here follows the video on this site and the finding as stated on the event page.
Eastern Air Lines Flight 855: three engines lost over the sea
On 5 May 1983 Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 lost the oil from all three engines on a flight from Miami to Nassau. Mechanics had fitted the engines’ chip detectors without their O-ring seals. After all three engines failed, the crew restarted the tail engine at about 4,000 feet and landed back at Miami. All 172 people on board were unhurt.
The NTSB traced the cause to mechanics not following established procedures for installing the detectors (NTSB/AAR-84/04). It is one of the cases in our guide to plane crashes caused by maintenance errors.
Delta Air Lines Flight 191: wind shear at Dallas
On 2 August 1985 Delta Air Lines Flight 191 flew into a microburst beneath a thunderstorm on final approach to Dallas/Fort Worth and struck the ground about a mile short of runway 17L. Of the 163 people on board, 134 were killed and 29 survived. The driver of a car on the highway was also killed.
The NTSB’s probable cause pointed to the crew’s decision to begin and continue the approach into a storm cloud they had seen to contain lightning. It also named the lack of guidelines and training for avoiding and escaping low-altitude wind shear, and the lack of real-time wind shear hazard information (NTSB/AAR-86/05). Delta 191 was a turning point for wind shear research, warning systems and pilot training. Our guide to wind shear and microbursts tells that story.
Two more TriStar accidents
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, Everglades, 29 December 1972. On approach to Miami, the crew of a TriStar became absorbed in a landing gear position light. The autopilot had been engaged, and the aircraft began a slow descent that no one noticed until it struck the Everglades. According to the FAA, 94 passengers and 5 crew were fatally injured, and two survivors died later. The NTSB found the crew failed to monitor the flight instruments during the final four minutes because they were preoccupied with the landing gear indication (NTSB-AAR-73-14). The FAA notes that after this crash the industry reviewed how to improve crew performance in emergencies, a step on the road to crew resource management. See What changed after Tenerife.
Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 163, Riyadh, 19 August 1980. Seven minutes after take-off from Riyadh, a smoke warning came on for the rear cargo compartment. The crew returned and landed at Riyadh, but the aircraft taxied for more than two minutes before stopping, the engines ran for more than three minutes after it stopped, and the evacuation was never started. Rescuers could not open a door until 26 minutes after the aircraft stopped. The FAA’s summary of the investigation describes how the fire burned through the cargo compartment liner and the cabin floor, and how the deaths were caused by toxic gases, heat and fire. Investigators could not determine the source of the fire. Afterwards the FAA introduced a tougher flame-penetration test for cargo compartment liners (Amendment 25-60), and the FAA’s summary stresses that an emergency evacuation checklist, properly used, could have saved lives. Saudia 163 will get its own event page.
How the record compares with the DC-10
The TriStar and the DC-10 are often compared because they were built for the same job at the same time. Boeing’s Statistical Summary, which leaves out sabotage, hijacking, terrorism and military action, gives these figures:
| Type | Hull losses | Hull losses with fatalities | Rate per million departures (fatal hull loss / all hull loss) | Edition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L-1011 TriStar | 4 | 3 | 0.56 / 0.74 | 1959–2018 |
| DC-10 / MD-10 | 28 | 12 | 1.28 / 2.98 | 1959–2025 |
So the TriStar had fewer accidents and a lower rate. Two cautions apply. The TriStar fleet was small, so a single accident moves its rate a long way. And the DC-10’s early losses, including the cargo door failures of 1972 and 1974 and the engine separation at Chicago in 1979, were linked to design and maintenance problems that were later fixed. The DC-10 story will be told in its own guide once those events are on this site.
Why the TriStar disappeared
Lockheed Martin’s history says production continued until 1983, with 250 TriStars built, and that financial troubles proved too much to overcome. The programme had already been hit when its engine manufacturer ran into financial difficulties during development.
Are any TriStars still flying with airlines? Boeing’s 2025 summary lists the L-1011 among the types that have not operated commercially in the last five years.
The L-1011 TriStar topic page lists every TriStar event on this site.
Table: TriStar events in this guide
| Date | Flight | What happened | Outcome | Investigating body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Dec 1972 | Eastern Air Lines 401 | Crew distracted by a gear light; unnoticed descent into the Everglades | 101 died (99 at the scene, 2 later) | NTSB |
| 12 Apr 1977 | Delta Air Lines 1080 | Left elevator jammed fully up after take-off | All 52 unhurt | NTSB |
| 19 Aug 1980 | Saudi Arabian Airlines 163 | Cargo fire; evacuation never started after landing | Evacuation never begun; see the FAA summary | Saudi authorities (summarised by the FAA) |
| 5 May 1983 | Eastern Air Lines 855 | Oil lost from all three engines after maintenance | All 172 unhurt | NTSB |
| 2 Aug 1985 | Delta Air Lines 191 | Microburst on final approach | 134 of 163 on board and 1 on the ground killed | NTSB |
Sources
- Lockheed Martin. L-1011: Luxury Among the Clouds (company history) Source
- NTSB (finding); video transcript. Delta Air Lines Flight 1080: video transcript on this site (no official report found online); NTSB finding as stated on the event page
- NTSB. NTSB/AAR-84/04, Eastern Air Lines L-1011, N334EA, Miami, 5 May 1983 Source
- NTSB. NTSB/AAR-86/05, Delta Air Lines Flight 191, L-1011-385-1, N726DA, Dallas/Fort Worth, 2 August 1985 Source
- NTSB. NTSB-AAR-73-14, Eastern Air Lines L-1011, N310EA, Miami, 29 December 1972 Source
- FAA. Lessons Learned: Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (N310EA) Source
- FAA. Lessons Learned: Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 163 (HZ-AHK) Source
- Boeing (manufacturer’s data). Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, Worldwide Operations 1959–2018 (copy hosted by Transport Canada) Source
- Boeing (manufacturer’s data). Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents, Worldwide Operations 1959–2025 (April 2026) Source