Viação Aérea São Paulo McDonnell Douglas MD-11 accident
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and Alitalia Boeing 747-243B · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96FA068
- 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 · McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- 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
- PPSPE
- Operator
- Viacao Aerea Sao Paulo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From São Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (SBGR), Sao PauloTo Miami International Airport (MIA)
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Boeing 747-243B
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747
- 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
- IDEML
- Operator
- Alitalia
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Miami International Airport (MIA)To Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (LIRF), Rome
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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
- Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Control tower service, inadequate
- Atc personnel(supervisor) › Supervision, inadequate
- Flightcrew › Clearance, not maintained
- Flightcrew › Interpretation of instructions, improper
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Interpretation of instructions, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Miami, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The ground controller (GC) had coordinated with the local controller (LC) and had cleared the B-747 across RWY 12 on taxiway V. The MD-11 had landed on RWY 9R and was in contact with the LC while holding short of RWY 12 at taxiways V and S. The flightcrew of the B-747 reported to the GC that the MD-11 was in the way on the opposite side of the runway. The GC did not acknowledge this and again cleared the B-747 across the rwy. The B-747 crossed the runway and stopped short of the MD-11. The tail of B-747 was still over the edge of RWY 12. The LC asked the MD-11 if they could make a right turn onto taxiway S. The flightcrew of the MD-11 acknowledged this as a clearance and began a right turn. The captain of the B-747 saw the MD-11 begin to move and transmitted on the ground control frequency for the pilot to stop. The MD-11 was on the local control frequency. The captain of the MD-11 pulled the aircraft to the far right side of the taxiway and the right main landing gear collided with 2 taxiway lights. The left wingtip of the MD-11 struck the nose of the B-747. As this occurred the GC asked the B-747 to pull up because the tail was obstructing RWY 12 and there was traffic landing. As the B-747 pulled forward, the left wingtip of the MD-11 collided with the left wing of the B-747. The landing traffic had included a 'heavy' aircraft which had landed while the B-747 was not completely clear of the runway (all parts of the airplane had not crossed the holding line).
Probable cause
The local and ground controllers' failure to adequately coordinate the movement of the two airplanes, the tower cab supervisor's failure to provide adequate supervision to the controllers, the MD-11 flightcrew's misinterpretation of the local controller's question about whether they could make a right turn onto another taxiway as a clearance, and the MD-11 flightcrew's failure to ensure that their aircraft could clear the B-747.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96FA068
- Event ID
- 20001208X05170
- Case number
- MIA96FA068
- 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: b2e9625ae63d09f3f94b65883d365656564f7daa3a6e447b78f4a3a9d5292440; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:54:24.136Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for IDEML; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.