Southwest Airlines Flight 5
Boeing 737-3A4 and Raven Air Cessna 401 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95FA319
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Boeing 737-3A4
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N675AA
- Operator
- Southwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport (AMA), Amarillo, TXTo Dallas Love Field (DAL)
- 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 · 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 401
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 401
- 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
- N31DB
- Operator
- Raven Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dallas Love Field (DAL)To Tyler Pounds Regional Airport (TYR), Tyler, TX
- 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 · 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- 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
- Flightcrew › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CESSNA 401, N31DB, HAD BEEN CLEARED TO TAXI FOR TAKEOFF ON RUNWAY 13L, AND REPORTED HAVING THE BOEING 737, N675AA, IN SIGHT. AFTER TURNING NORTHWEST ONTO TAXIWAY BRAVO, THE CESSNA CAPTAIN LOST SIGHT OF THE 737. THE CESSNA FIRST OFFICER WAS OCCUPIED WITH DUTIES INSIDE THE COCKPIT AND DID NOT SEE THE 737 UNTIL IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE COLLISION. AFTER LANDING ON RUNWAY 13L, THE 737 EXITED THE RUNWAY, RECEIVED AND ACKNOWLEDGED CLEARANCE TO TAXI TO THE GATE, BUT DID NOT ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIVING THE TRAFFIC ADVISORY CONCERNING THE CESSNA TO HIS LEFT. THE 737 PROCEEDED TO TAXI NORTHWEST ON TAXIWAY MIKE. THE COLLISION OCCURRED AS THE 737 MERGED FROM MIKE ONTO BRAVO. THE 737 CREW STATED THEY NEVER SAW THE CESSNA. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE AIRPLANES TAXIING PARALLEL TO ONE ANOTHER WITH THE 737 SLIGHTLY AHEAD OF THE CESSNA AND GRADUALLY CONVERGING UNTIL THE LEFT WING OF THE 737 IMPACTED THE RUDDER OF THE CESSNA. ALTHOUGH THE GROUND CONTROLLER 'ANTICIPATED' THAT THE 737 WOULD FOLLOW THE CESSNA, HE DID NOT ISSUE SPECIFIC SEQUENCING INSTRUCTIONS TO ENSURE THAT THIS TOOK PLACE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE FLIGHTCREWS OF THE BOEING 737, N675AA, AND THE CESSNA 401, N31DB, TO SEE AND AVOID EACH OTHER. FACTORS WERE: THE FAILURE OF 737 FLIGHTCREW TO RESPOND TO THE TRAFFIC ADVISORY GIVEN BY THE GROUND CONTROLLER IDENTIFYING POTENTIALLY CONFLICTING TRAFFIC, AND THE FAILURE OF THE GROUND CONTROLLER TO ISSUE SEQUENCING INSTRUCTIONS TO BOTH AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95FA319
- Event ID
- 20001207X03934
- Case number
- FTW95FA319
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: f95c90e1b9700b96249a40bbfaa5688063e1a2cf0481cffcfec4f0cf42f54f43; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:58:48.982Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N31DB; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.