Airliners.net

Does any body recall an accident at SJO involving an Eastern 757's fuselage that broke close to 2L in the early eighties? I have a vivid imagine of this but have never been able to find a record of it. It is very possible that I was too little and could have imagined or dreamt about this but I wanted to check with this community. Any references would be helpful. thanks, Guillermo.

I know I'm 8 months late and the details are a little different, but this might be what you're looking for: https://aviation-safety.net/database/re ... 19871227-1

Ehh.. I doubt it is what he was looking for. The link refers to an incident at Pensacola with a DC-9. So location and aircraft type don't add up.

On September 29, 1988, an Eastern 757 flying SJO-MIA aborted take off and the gear collapsed. Seven pax were injured. That's the only Eastern incident in Costa Rica I can find.

As reported by thegoldenargosy, Eastern N523EA was on takeoff roll just past V1 when the flightcrew heard a loud bang and the Captain, who thought the a/c was still on the runway, took control from the F/O and attempted to put the nose back on the runway while attempting an RTO. The aircraft was actually 8-10 feet in the air and the NLG touched down first followed by the MLG resulting in the failure of the nose wheel well structure which pushed the NLG up into the cockpit and area at the L1 door about 4". The NLG then collapsed. The a/c stopped at the end of the runway.

Initial reports of a tire failure were investigated (I was on the crash team) and found to be false. The NLG tire failed as a result of the NLG touching down hard during the RTO. It was later found that a turbine blade failure in the #1 engine was the loud bang that the flightcrew heard.

N523EA spent many months at Copesa's hanger and was rebuilt and put back into service.

And N523EA is still flying boxes today