West Air Commuter Airlines Embraer EMB-120 RT accident
Embraer EMB-120 RT · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX95LA255
- 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
Embraer EMB-120 RT Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-120
- 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
- N268UE
- Operator
- West Air Commuter Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)To Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), Palm Springs, 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 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
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Wrong taxi route, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
UNITED EXPRESS UTILIZES A PORTION OF A UNITED AIRLINES MAINTENANCE RAMP AS A COMMUTER TERMINAL. AFTER LOADING PASSENGERS FOR A SCHEDULED COMMUTER FLIGHT, THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A PARKED BOEING 767-222 WHILE TAXIING ON THE MAINTENANCE RAMP TOWARD A TAXIWAY WHICH GOES TO THE ASSIGNED DEPARTURE RUNWAY. UNITED HAD ESTABLISHED A TAXI LANE IN THE MAINTENANCE AREA WITH A YELLOW GUIDANCE LINE WHICH PROVIDES CLEARANCE FROM ALL PARKED AIRCRAFT. THE CAPTAIN OF THE EMBRAER STATED THAT IN ORDER TO AVOID A POSSIBLE DEPARTURE DELAY SHE ELECTED NOT TO USE THE DESIGNATED TAXI LANE, BUT RATHER GO DIRECTLY ACROSS A NON-MOVEMENT AIRCRAFT PARKING AREA TO THE ACTIVE TAXIWAY. THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT CLEARANCE FOR THE EMBRAER ALONG THE CAPTAIN'S PLANNED TAXI ROUTE AND THE VERTICAL STABLIZER STRUCK THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER OF THE PARKED BOEING 767.
Probable cause
the captain's decision to taxi across a non-movement aircraft parking area instead of using the designated taxi lane to exit the ramp. A factor in the accident was the dark night environmental lighting conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX95LA255
- Event ID
- 20001207X04003
- Case number
- LAX95LA255
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-07-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a839a608a5ed70f64d434104fb2221cbf16c33eaa30a455b62010356851510c9; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:59:05.821Z.