[6] Olympic Airways was the flag carrier for Greece and had purchased 747s for some of its prime routes, including a nonstop between Athens and New York.

[3] This meant that large numbers of American tourists could be accommodated in one flight[3] at lower per-seat costs to the airlines.

[11] In the late 1960s, Pratt & Whitney developed a new such engine, and designated the JT9D to power the 747;[12][13] with water injection, it delivered more thrust for the heavy jumbo jet.

[citation needed] The two captains, contrary to the aircraft flight manual, immediately ordered the landing gear retracted[15] when the plane was 35 feet (11 m) above the runway.

[15] As it passed over Kallithea, Nea Smyrni, and Syggrou, its altitude was only 180 feet (55 m) and its speed was 160 miles per hour (140 kn; 260 km/h).

[4] When the speed reached 170 miles per hour (150 kn; 270 km/h), Migadis and Fikardos worked on increasing altitude and heading towards the sea.

[15] The larger obstacle of Mount Aigaleo at 1,539 feet (469 m) was of great concern because the low airspeed and minimal altitude did not leave the flight crew enough room to execute a normal banked turn.

[3][9] At 2:05 pm, a light headwind gave the plane some altitude, which allowed Migadis and Fikardos to make a gradual turn to avoid crashing into the mountain.

[19] Brien S. Wygle, the vice president of Customer Support at Boeing, issued a report entitled Performance Analysis of the Olympic Airways Takeoff at Athens on August 9, 1978 with an Engine Failure at Rotation to Alex Fissher, Director of Flight Standards at the Greek Civilian Aviation Authority.

Instead, the problem was caused by the inadvertent shut off of the water injection pumps by the flight crew and the resulting decrease in thrust.

Once thrust was manually increased at a coordination time of approximately 325 seconds, the airplane climbed out in a normal manner.Newspapers reported that engine three exploded during takeoff due to overheating of the turbine cooling pipes.

Sixteen seconds after the Boeing 747 took off, the Pratt & Whitney JT9D number 1 engine exploded after its turbine blades disintegrated.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in its incident report that this was likely due to an ongoing pattern of the engine overheating during starting procedures.