Delta Airlines Boeing 757-232 accident
Boeing 757-232 and United Airlines Boeing 757-222 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC96LA026
- 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 757-232
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 757
- 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
- N622DL
- Operator
- Delta Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fairbanks International Airport (FAI)To Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AK
- 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
- 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 · Boeing 757-222
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 757
- 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
- N524UA
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AK
- 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
- Standing
- 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 › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Flightcrew › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Delta Boeing 757, N622DL, was departing the ramp area in a right turn to begin the taxi for takeoff. The United Boeing 757, N524UA, was parked at an adjoining gate pending an imminent departure. As the Delta 757 came closer to the parked United 757, ground marshals for the Delta airplane believed that the left wing of the Delta airplane was likely to strike the left wing of the United airplane. The marshals gave the emergency 'STOP' signal, but the Delta airplane continued moving and struck the wing of the United airplane. The Delta airplane kept moving and continued towards the active runway. The Delta crew was advised via radio to return to the ramp area, where they were advised of the collision.
Probable cause
inadequate visual lookout by the flightcrew of the Delta Boeing 757, N622DL, and their failure to follow procedures and directives by not closely following the ramp marshals' signals.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC96LA026
- Event ID
- 20001208X05206
- Case number
- ANC96LA026
- 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: 8e3428f5f5fa1d9c8468db18c4c5bba5f085da3c1096f724aa041f7674bb45d5; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:53:25.515Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N524UA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, UALA.