Boeing 737-300 incident near Greenville, Texas, November 17, 2007
On November 17, 2007 at about 8:55 pm local time, a Boeing 737-300, registered N676SW, suffered minor damage in an incident near Greenville, Texas (Love Field). It was flown under scheduled airline rules (Part 121). No one was hurt; 138 people were on board or involved. The weather was visual conditions (good weather).
The NTSB's probable cause their words, unchanged
A total loss of engine power due to the No. 2 engine experiencing a release of its fan spinner through the fan cowl as a result of an unidentified object striking the spinner, separating it from the fan disk and causing the spinner to be ingested into the fan blades.
Source: NTSB aviation accident database, copy made October 4, 2026. Docket and reports at the NTSB.
What the record shows
- Date
- November 17, 2007 · about 8:55 pm local time
- Place
- Greenville, Texas · Love Field · map
- Type
- Incident
- Injuries
- No one was hurt; 138 people were on board or involved.
- Weather
- visual conditions (good weather)
- Aircraft
- Boeing 737-300 · all 737-300s on the register
- Registration
- N676SW · registry record
- Damage
- Minor damage
- Flight
- Flight · scheduled airline rules (Part 121)
The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record
The airplane experienced a failure of the No. 2 engine while climbing through flight level (FL) 250 to FL 330. The flight crew reported feeling severe vibration, pulled both throttles back to idle, declared an emergency, made an air turn back and performed an uneventful single-engine landing. Examination of the engine revealed that all the fan blades exhibited heavy airfoil damage, with several fractured near the platform. The forward and rear spinner cones were no longer attached to the fan disk and a large penetration hole was noted on the right-hand side of the fan cowl, just forward of the engine fan case. Examination of the airplane revealed impact marks along the right side of the fuselage and the right-hand horizontal stabilizer. None of the fuselage impacts were through to the cabin. The pieces of the forward and rear spinners cones that exited the engine were never recovered. Metallurgical examination of the fracture surfaces of the fan blades and the fragments of the rear spinner aft flange revealed no preexisting fatigue-type mechanism and all the fractures were consistent with overstress. Four sequential fan blade spacers were distorted consistent with a severe axial load rearward applied to the spacers by the rear spinner cone prior to the spinner cone release; however, no determination could be made as to the initial failure or what may have impacted the spinner cone.
The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.
The factual record from the NTSB's investigation tables, in plain English
The aircraft
- Landing gear: fixed
- Engine: Cfm CFM56-3B1 (turbofan); 0 hours total
The flight
- Departed from: DAL Dallas TX
- Destination: LIT Little Rock AR
- Flight plan: IFR
- A second pilot was aboard
Weather at the time
- Wind: from 210° at 6 knots
- Visibility: 10 statute miles
- Sky: broken clouds at 25,000 ft; scat at 12,000 ft
- Temperature: 77°F (25°C), dew point 54°F (12°C)
- Altimeter: 30.00 inHg
- Observation at 2:53 pm from DAL
Injuries
| Fatal | Serious | Minor | None | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew | 5 | |||
| Passengers | 133 |
Documents from the investigation the NTSB's docket: the evidence folder behind the report
The docket, the folder of records gathered during an investigation (maintenance records, photographs, witness statements, examinations), has not been read from the NTSB for this case yet; the list appears here once it has. Open the docket at the NTSB.
About this page
Everything above comes from the NTSB's public accident database: the narrative, probable cause and findings are the NTSB's own words, and the coded tables behind its report (pilot, aircraft, flight, weather, injuries, sequence of events) are written out in plain English. Pilots' ages, home towns and medical details are left out on purpose. The documents and photographs are the NTSB's docket, the folder of records gathered during the investigation, shown as the NTSB released them (the NTSB redacts some personal details first) and listed under the NTSB's own titles. This site's own text never names pilots, passengers or anyone else involved. A preliminary report describes what is known soon after the event and can change; the final report, with the probable cause, usually follows one to two years later and this page is refreshed when it does. Case number ENG08IA002.