Gulfstream Int'L Airlines Flight 9399

The crew stated they were receiving marshalling instructions while taxiing the aircraft to parking during heavy rain. They said the ramp area was dark and the aircraft's taxi, navigation and tail floodlights were illuminated, and the windshield wipers were operating. The captain said that during taxi, the yellow guideline into the ramp area was very difficult to see, but he was taxiing the aircraft within 10 feet of the line. Both crewmembers said they never saw the tug until after the collision, and when the aircraft door was opened, they realized that the baggage vehicle had collided with their aircraft. The police report showed that the pilot had said in his initial report, that he felt as if the left wing had been pushed hard and he had observed that the aircraft's left propeller and wing, as well as the rear baggage carts were damaged. The police report also showed that the baggage cart had been equipped with no lights, only reflectors, and that the distance from the center of the yellow taxi line to the impact point where the debris lay was about 30 feet. In addition, a ramp control incident report showed that in addition to the debris being located 30 feet from the yellow line, the debris was also located 73 feet from the aircraft containment line. The tug driver stated that he had been driving as close to the fuchsia (red) line as was possible, when the collision occurred. The ramp supervisor who was marshalling the aircraft and witnessed the collision stated that he was 100 feet away, and observed that the tug and cart was coming from the left side of the aircraft, trying to cross the taxiway from one side to the other, and the tug driver did not notice the aircraft taxiing in, and tried to avoid hitting the aircraft by making a turn to the left, but he hit the airplane with the cart, causing damage to the airplane's left wing and propeller.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset