Korean Airlines Boeing 747-300 accident
Boeing 747-300 · Accident: propeller blast or jet exhaust/suction while standing
From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA250
- 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
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 1
- 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 747-300
- 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
- HL746
- Operator
- Korean Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)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 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Propeller blast or jet exhaust/suction
- 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
- Driver of vehicle › Distance, inadequate
- Driver of vehicle › Unsafe/hazardous condition, not identified
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE, A FOUR ENGINED HEAVY JET, WAS DIRECTED TO TAXI TO AN ACTIVE RUNWAY. THE TAXI ROUTE WOULD EVENTUALLY CROSS AN ACTIVE RUNWAY. GROUND CONTROL DIRECTED THE AIRPLANE NOT TO CROSS THAT RUNWAY. THIS COMMAND WAS ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE AIRCREW. THE AIRPLANE STOPPED AND HELD ITS SOUTHERLY ORIENTED POSITION ON THE NORTH-SOUTH ORIENTED TAXIWAY WHICH INTERSECTED THE ACTIVE RUNWAY. WHILE THE AIRPLANE WAS STOPPED, A MAINTENANCE UTILITY TRUCK OPERATED BY ANOTHER AIRLINE CAME TO A STOP ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE SERVICE ROAD WHICH CROSSED PERPENDICULAR TO THE TAXIWAY THE AIRPLANE WAS POSITIONED ON. GROUND CONTROL DIRECTED THE AIRPLANE TO CONTINUE TAXIING. AS THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO POWERUP, THE SERVICE TRUCK DROVE BEHIND IT. THE TRUCK WAS STRUCK BY THE AIRPLANE'S JETBLAST AND ROLLED OVER TWO OR THREE TIMES. A REVIEW OF THE AIRPORT'S MOTOR VEHICLE OPERATING REGULATIONS HANDBOOK AND THE AIRLINE'S DRIVER TRAINING PROGRAM REVEALED THE DANGERS OF JETBLAST TO MOTOR VEHICLES WERE NOT COVERED.
Probable cause
AN UNSAFE/HAZARDOUS CONDITION THAT WAS NOT IDENTIFIED BY THE VEHICLE DRIVER, AND AN INADEQUATE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE AIRPLANE AND VEHICLE AS THE DRIVER DROVE THE VEHICLE BEHIND THE AIRPLANE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA250
- Event ID
- 20001211X15372
- Case number
- CHI92LA250
- 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: 935b4d429b8aad23834c1979f2c919d3b46cf392cf514a4a644df23d9d9fcd09; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:44:26.389Z.