Northwest Airlines Flight 115
Airbus Industrie A-320-211 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP) to John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA170
- 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
- Airline
- 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
Airbus Industrie A-320-211
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A-320
- 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
- N326US
- Operator
- Northwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP)To John Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA), ORANGE COUNTY, CA
- 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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 · to 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 › Crew/group coordination, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE RECEIVED A PUSHBACK FROM THE GATE BY A TUG. THE CAPTAIN MADE ONE COMMUNICATION WITH THE TUG ATTENDANT AND THEN BECAME INVOLVED IN A DISCUSSION WITH THE FIRST OFFICER REGARDING TAXI INSTRUCTIONS. WHEN HE LOOKED OUT FOR A WINGWALKER HE SAW NO ONE AND ASSUMED THAT THE TUG HAD DEPARTED AND THE PERVIOUS COMMUNICATION WAS CONFIRMATION OF THAT. WHEN POWER WAS APPLIED HE HEARD A LOUD NOISE, APPLIED BRAKES TO STOP THE AIRPLANE REALIZING THAT THE AIRPLANE HAD TAXIED INTO THE TUG.
Probable cause
the captain's not maintaining crew/group coordination. Factors were the captain's diverted attention and his not maintaining visual separation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA170
- Event ID
- 20001207X03655
- Case number
- CHI95LA170
- 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: 1035ed0d2c1bd5c02e6ec9626895b0295146bdbec05eb95bb68e3adf38a958e8; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:00:21.807Z.