Alitalia Boeing 747-230 accident
Boeing 747-230 and USAir Fokker FK-28-1000 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC90LA132
- 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 · Boeing 747-230
- 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
- IDEMC
- Operator
- Alitalia
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (LIRF), Rome, ITALYTo John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
- 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
- Taxi · from 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
- 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
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Fokker FK-28-1000
- Aircraft type
- Fokker FK-28
- 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
- N458US
- Operator
- USAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)To Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR), Syracuse, NY
- 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 · 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A BOEING 747-230 (ALITALIA FLT 608, REG NO: I-DEMC) WAS IN A RIGHT TURN AS ITS CREW TRIED TO PASS BEHIND A STOPPED FOKKER F.28 MK 1000 (USAIR FLT 1948, REG NO: N458US). AS THE 747 WAS TURNING, ITS LEFT WING STRUCK THE RUDDER AND VERTICAL STABILIZER OF THE FK.28. THIS RESULTED IN MINOR DAMAGE TO THE 747 AND SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE F.28. THE CAPTAIN OF THE 747 SAID HE WAS 'ONE HOUR LATE AND TRYING TO MAKE UP TIME.' HE ALSO SAID, 'IT WAS MY FAULT.'
Probable cause
THE BOEING 747 CAPTAIN MISJUDGED CLEARANCE BETWEEN HIS AIRCRAFT AND THE FOKKER F.28. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: SELF-INDUCED PRESSURE OF THE BOEING 747 CAPTAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC90LA132
- Event ID
- 20001212X23524
- Case number
- NYC90LA132
- 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: f4a1b6d01a87ced7eef5ead04dbd5dbab243729c65314698372cbb1cb024a6c3; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:01:55.254Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "A BOEING 747-230 (ALITALIA FLT 608, REG NO: I-DEMC) WAS IN A RIGHT TURN"