Carnival Air Lines Boeing 737-4Q8 accident
Boeing 737-4Q8 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during pushback
From Miami International Airport (MIA) to Toussaint Louverture International Airport (MTPP)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA95LA218
- 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
Boeing 737-4Q8
- 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
- N405KW
- Operator
- Carnival Air Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA)To Toussaint Louverture International Airport (MTPP), Port-au-Prince
- 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
- Pushback/towing
- 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
- Driver of vehicle › Miscellaneous equipment, uncontrolled
- Driver of vehicle › Planning/decision, improper
- Object › Ground power unit
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A GROUND SUPPORT EMPLOYEE WAS ATTEMPTING WITHOUT ASSISTANCE TO CONNECT THE TOWBAR TO THE PAYMOVER TO PUSH BACK THE AIRPLANE FROM THE GATE. THE PAYMOVER REPORTEDLY MOVED UNCOMMANDED REARWARD AND COLLIDED WITH OTHER GROUND EQUIPMENT. THE ENGINE OF THE PAYMOVER WAS SHUT DOWN AND A GROUND SUPPORT SUPERVISOR BOARDED THE PAYMOVER TO AGAIN ATTEMPT TO PUSHBACK THE AIRPLANE. THE SUPERVISOR STATED THAT WHILE STANDING ON THE PAYMOVER WITH THE PARKING BRAKE RELEASED AFTER STARTING THE ENGINE, THE PAYMOVER MOVED UNCOMMANDED FORWARD. ATTEMPTS TO STOP IT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THE PAYMOVER COLLIDED WITH THE TOWBAR THEN WITH A GROUND POWER UNIT WHICH WAS PUSHED INTO THE FUSELAGE. THE NORMAL BRAKE SYSTEM WHICH WAS NOT REPAIRED AFTER THE ACCIDENT WAS OPERATIONALLY TESTED AFTER THE ACCIDENT; NO DEFECTS WERE NOTED. OPERATIONAL TEST OF NEUTRAL SAFETY SWITCH COULD NOT DUPLICATE THE MALFUNCTION. SIMILAR DISCREPANCIES REGARDING UNCOMMANDED MOVEMENT OF THE PAYMOVER WERE REPORTED.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE COMPANY DRIVER OF THE VEHICLE (PAYMOVER) AND UNCOMMANDED MOVEMENT OF THE PAYMOVER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA95LA218
- Event ID
- 20001207X04545
- Case number
- MIA95LA218
- 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: 9e0dbfec7b7ad6852d04bb5fd9df088e94c60c5e91101ca85a2e4ee90deb5ce8; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:57:32.688Z.