TACA Flight 110 was a scheduled international airline flight operated by TACA International Airlines, traveling from San Salvador to New Orleans, with a stopover in Belize City. On May 24, 1988, the flight encountered severe thunderstorm activity on its final approach to New Orleans International Airport. As a result, the brand new Boeing 737-300 suffered flameout in both engines while descending through a severe thunderstorm, but the pilots made a successful emergency landing on a grass levee adjacent to NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, with no one aboard sustaining more than a few minor injuries, and with only minor hail damage to the intact aircraft. Following an on-site engine replacement, the jetliner took off from Saturn Boulevard, a road which had previously been an aircraft runway at Michoud. The aircraft was subsequently repaired and returned to service until it finally retired in 2016.
N75356, the aircraft involved in the incident
Photo of the nose of the 737 a day after the incident at the levee, showing the hail damage.
The landing site of TACA 110.
The aircraft involved, operating with Southwest Airlines in 2010
Transportes AƩreos del Continente Americano, S.A., operating as Avianca El Salvador, is an airline owned by Kingsland Holdings and based in San Salvador, El Salvador. It is one of the seven national branded airlines in the Avianca Group of Latin American airlines, and it serves as the flag carrier of El Salvador.
TACA's logo from 1936 to 1948
A TACA Douglas DC-4 in Tegucigalpa
A TACA Air Cargo Lockheed L-188A Electra at Miami International Airport in 1978
A TACA Boeing 737-300 in 1994