American Airlines Boeing 757-223 accident
Boeing 757-223 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during pushback
From an unrecorded airport to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA100
- 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 757-223
- 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
- N615AM
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), DFW AIRPORT, TX
- 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
- None
Cause areas
- Ground personnel › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD REQUESTED THAT THE AIRPLANE BE PUSHEDBACK FROM THE TERMINAL APRON TO THE DE-ICING AREA PRIOR TO DEPARTURE. THE WEATHER WAS OVERCAST AND THERE WAS LIGHT PRECIPITATION WITH THE AMBIENT TEMPERATURE AROUND FREEZING. THE SIGNALMAN OPERATED THE HEADSET INTERPHONE WHICH WAS PLUGGED INTO THE COMMUNICATIONS PANEL ON THE NOSEGEAR STRUT. THE CREW CHIEF DIRECTED THE PUSHBACK FROM THE TRACTOR. THE SIGNALMAN WAS STRUCK BY THE NOSEWHEELS. ALL GROUND CREW PERSONNEL, EXCEPT THE SIGNALMAN, STATED THAT THEY HAD BEEN TRAINED BY VIDEO ON THE THREE MAN PUSHBACK PROCEDURES. THEY STATED, HOWEVER, THAT THEY DID NOT HAVE THE LONGER COMMUNICATIONS CORD AND THE CONNECTOR BOX ON THE TRACTOR, WHICH ARE NEEDED TO ACCOMPLISH THE PROCEDURES.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE GROUND PERSONNEL TO FOLLOW PUBLISHED PROCEDURES/DIRECTIVES. A FACTOR WAS THE INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA100
- Event ID
- 20001211X14301
- Case number
- FTW92LA100
- 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, damage. 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: 772932225f088a3f6761839a20c09f3c0cef61f3e88d890c557c9d913df447d1; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:47:35.006Z.