American Airlines Flight 1801
Fokker F28 MK100 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while standing
From Rochester International Airport (RST) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI00LA076
- 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
Fokker F28 MK100
- Aircraft type
- Fokker F28
- 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
- N1403M
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rochester International Airport (RST), Rochester, MNTo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Driver of vehicle › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
They reported seeing the refueling truck parked at a 45 degree angle to the lead in line on the right side of the airplane. The truck then moved forward and contacted the right side of the airplane near the nose gear where it came to rest. The airplane just arrived at the gate and the jet bridge was not yet in place. The airplane was pushed several feet to the left by the impact. One witness reported the truck was traveling between 20 and 30 miles per hour and another witness reported it was traveling 'a little to fast.' Witnesses who saw and helped the fuel truck driver out of his vehicle after the accident reported that he appeared to be 'dazed'. At least 20 passengers who stood up immediately when the airplane reached the gate were 'thrown about' when the impact occurred. The driver of the refueling truck did not remember the impact and reported he must have 'blacked out.' A medical and sleep study evaluation of the driver showed he suffered from severe obstructive sleep apnea and significant hypersomnolence. The same driver was involved in another occurrence in October, 1999. He reported 'dosing off' just prior to that collision.
Probable cause
the driver of the refueling truck fell asleep which resulted in him not maintaining clearance with the parked aircraft. Factors associated with the accident were severe obstructive sleep apnea and significant hypersomnolence which resulted in chronic fatigue.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI00LA076
- Event ID
- 20001212X20463
- Case number
- CHI00LA076
- 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: 06f6c4cba8a7bf2248cb9e9773815c5caa7418d7c7d427f85a8a01d7238c8aee; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:48:25.030Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N1403M; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.