Alaska Airlines Flight 255
McDonnell Douglas MD-80 · Incident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA97IA040
- 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
- Incident
- 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
McDonnell Douglas MD-80
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-80
- 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
- N941AS
- Operator
- Alaska Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, CATo Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
- 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
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Ground personnel › Aircraft handling, inadequate
- Ground personnel › Clearance, not verified
- Ground personnel › Remedial action, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft was taxiing into a gate area in close proximity to another parked aircraft, a fuel truck, a building, and a jetway. The end of the truck was overhanging into a designated safety zone. The left wing walker who was assisting in guiding the airplane into the ramp was standing in a position which allowed his view of the left wing tip to be obstructed by the fuel truck. The wing walker stated that he gave the emergency stop signal to the lead marshaler when he noticed that the left wing tip light disappeared behind the fuel truck. The lead marshaler immediately gave the stop signal to the pilot, but the airplane continued to roll during the pilot's reaction and braking. The left wing leading edge slat impacted the rear of the fuel truck and slat's skin was dented. Rain and dark night conditions prevailed at the time. The fuel truck had been struck in another incident by the same aircraft type while parked at the same gate. The gate's ramp was congested, and was marked by painted lines that were faded and difficult to discern under artificially-lighted, wet conditions at night.
Probable cause
The failure of the left wing walker to verify the clearance between the left wing and the fuel truck during taxi, and his delay in signaling the lead marshaller to alert the pilot to stop the aircraft prior to impact. Factors contributing to the incident include congested ramp facilities, inadequate ramp markings, rain, and dark night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA97IA040
- Event ID
- 20001208X07243
- Case number
- SEA97IA040
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1996-12-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a80bf066ae6cbde488411781298a6542b378e4334e251446a5bd1308100b2da9; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:44:09.270Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N941AS; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, ASAA.