Continental Airlines Boeing 737 incident
Boeing 737 and Boeing 737 · Incident: near collision between aircraft while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL88IA108
- 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
- Incident
- 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 737
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N13331
- Operator
- Continental Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, TXTo Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DC
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Boeing 737
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N432PE
- Operator
- Continental Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJTo Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), Fort Myers, FL
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- 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
- Atc personnel(artcc) › Crew/group coordination, inadequate
- Atc personnel(artcc) › Radar separation, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Greensboro, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
CONTINENTAL FLT 458 (BOEING 737, N13331) WAS FLYING NE AT FL370 AS CONTINENTAL FLT 703 (BOEING 737, N432PE) WAS FLYING FM THE OPPOSITE DRCTN AT FL350. BOTH FLTS WERE ON THE SAME FREQ, BEING CTLD BY ATLANTA ARTCC (SECTOR 47) CTLR, WHO HAD JUST COME ON DUTY. IN PREPARATION FOR HANDOFF TO SECTOR 33, FLT 458 WAS TOLD TO DSCND TO FL 350; FURTHER DSCNT OF FLT 458 WAS INTENDED AS SOON AS IT WAS CLR OF A 3RD ACFT AT FL330. THE RELIEVED SECTOR 47 CTLR HAD AGREED WITH THE SECTOR 33 CTLR THAT SECTOR 33 WOULD GIVE FLT 458 A VECTOR SO IT COULD BE FURTHER DSCNDD. BASED ON AN ASSUMPTION OF WHAT WAS TO BE DONE, THE SECTOR 47 CTLR HANDED OFF FLT 458 TO SECTOR 33. DRG THIS TIME FRAME, THE SECTOR 33 CTLR WAS ALSO RELIEVED & FLT 458 WAS NOT VECTORED FOR ABT 3 MIN. SEEING A POTENTIAL CONFLICT, THE CTLRS TURNED THEIR RESPECTIVE FLTS, BUT BOTH WERE TURNED TOWARD THE NW (FLT 458 TO THE LEFT & FLT 703 TO THE RGT). AS BOTH ACFT WERE TURNING, THEY CONTD TO CONVERGE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE CONFLICT ALERT SOUNDED & THE ACFT PASSED EACH OTHER AT THE SAME ALT WITH ABT .6 MI SEPN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL88IA108
- Event ID
- 20001213X25197
- Case number
- ATL88IA108
- 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: 4052be7c68df1cbdf0cb0a0abdd9cd93ccee3f1d52a18c3e0086f8a3229279ec; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:25:47.561Z.