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Delta Airlines Boeing 757-232 accident

13 Nov 1992 · Atlanta, GA, United States

Boeing 757-232 · Accident during pushback

From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
ATL93LA024
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 757-232

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
N619DL
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)To Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Baltimore, MD
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
Miscellaneous/other
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

  • Company/operator management › Inadequate training
  • Ground personnel › Procedures/directives, inadequate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE AIRCRAFT WAS IN THE PROCESS OF PUSH BACK OPERATIONS FROM THE TERMINAL GATE. THE GROUND CREWMAN, WHO WAS SERVING AS A WING WALKER IN THE PUSH BACK AT THE TIME, WAS STILL IN THE PROCESS OF REMOVING A WHEEL CHOCK FROM BEHIND THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR AT THE TIME THE PUSH BACK BEGAN, AND HIS LEG WAS CAUGHT UNDER THE WHEEL AS THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN ROLLING BACKWARDS. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE AIRLINE'S GROUND OPERATIONS MANUAL AND TRAINING OF GROUND PERSONNEL DID NOT INCLUDE PROCEDURES TO ASSURE THAT WING WALKERS AND OTHER GROUND PERSONNEL WERE CLEAR OF THE LANDING GEAR, AND IN THE PROPER POSITION, PRIOR TO THE BEGINNING OF BUSH BACK.

Probable cause

THE INADEQUATE PROCEDURES AND TRAINING OF GROUND PERSONNEL INVOLVED IN THE AIRCRAFT PUSH BACK OPERATIONS BY COMPANY MANAGEMENT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL93LA024
Event ID
20001211X15987
Case number
ATL93LA024
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: 3855574c49f72419baad517c2b9b8c041022ae79e381da8fd7f75007ea9a2725; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:43:00.255Z.