Comair Bombardier CL-600 accident
Bombardier CL-600 and American Trans Air Boeing 727-214 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC01LA023
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Bombardier CL-600
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier CL-600
- 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
- N804CA
- Operator
- Comair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LaGuardia Airport (LGA)To Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Covington, KY
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Boeing 727-214
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 727
- 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
- N786AT
- Operator
- American Trans Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LaGuardia Airport (LGA)To Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), Chicago, IL
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Distance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A Bombardier CL-600 Regional Jet (CRJ) was stopped in an area where the taxiway split in two. The parking brake was set, and the crew was waiting for airplanes ahead to move forward, along one of the taxiways. A Boeing 727 attempted to pass obliquely behind the CRJ, on the other taxiway. The Boeing captain was aware the CRJ's location, and believed he had adequate clearance. However, while proceeding, on taxiway centerline, the Boeing crew felt a slight bump. They believed it was a seam in the concrete, but then heard the CRJ crew report the impact over the radio. The Boeing's left wing had struck the CRJ's right winglet, from aft, forward. The accident occurred at night.
Probable cause
The Boeing captain's misjudgment of the distance between his airplane and the CRJ. A factor was the nighttime conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC01LA023
- Event ID
- 20001212X22245
- Case number
- NYC01LA023
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2000-10-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e3b1a1a51c70879661fc923afd477d10ffa5b2fc7c3637765dad5104b664b253; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:21:30.382Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N804CA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, COMA.