Atlantic Coast Airlines Flight 5500
British Aerospace BAE 3201 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA94LA166
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
British Aerospace BAE 3201
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace BAE-3201
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N495UE
- Operator
- Atlantic Coast Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), Jacksonville, FLTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Taxi · from runway
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Parking brakes, inadvertent deactivation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CAPTAIN STATED THAT HE APPLIED THE PARKING BRAKE DURING THE SHUTDOWN CHECKLIST BUT THE AIRPLANE ROLLED FORWARD. THE LEFT ENGINE PROPELLER CONTACTED A GROUND POWER UNIT (GPU) THAT WAS CORRECTLY PREPOSITIONED AT THE GATE. THE CVR WAS READOUT WHICH REVEALED THAT THE CAPTAIN DID STATE THAT THE PARKING BRAKE WAS SET BUT AFTER THE GPU CONTACT, THE CAPTAIN STATED THAT THE BRAKE IS SET TO WHICH THE FIRST OFFICER (F/O) RESPONDED 'I JUST SET IT.' THE F/O FURTHER STATED 'RELEASED IT WHEN YOU...' AFTER THE ACCIDENT A TUG AND TOW BAR WERE ATTACHED TO THE NOSE LANDING GEAR OF THE AIRPLANE AND THE PARKING BRAKE WAS APPLIED. ATTEMPTS TO MOVE THE AIRPLANE WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THE PARKING BRAKE ASSEMBLY WAS REMOVED FOR EXAMINATION WHICH REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. IT WAS NOTED THAT THE SECOND NOTCH FROM THE BOTTOM WAS WORN. THE MAINTENANCE MANUAL STATES THAT BEYOND THREE NOTCHES THE HANDLE SHOULD PULL TIGHT. POST ACCIDENT INSPECTION OF THE PARKING BRAKE REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
INADVERTENT DEACTIVATION OF THE PARKING BRAKE BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE WORN CONDITION OF THE PARKING BRAKE ASSEMBLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA94LA166
- Event ID
- 20001206X01601
- Case number
- MIA94LA166
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1214ff6bc60731dc2374addcc6ee4f74886d8eed39055f8406af1661b3a3dc5b; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:14:46.451Z.