Northwest Airlines Boeing 727-200 accident
Boeing 727-200 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during pushback
From an unrecorded airport to Winnipeg / James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88FA233
- 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
Boeing 727-200
- 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
- N729RW
- Operator
- Northwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Winnipeg / James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG), WINNIPEG,CANADA
- 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
- Pushback/towing
- 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
- Clearance › Not maintained
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER PUSHBACK FROM THE JETWAY, THE AIRPLANE HIT A GROUND HANDLING VEHICLE (TUG) AS THE FLT CREW STARTED TO TAXI FOR TAKEOFF. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT AFTER PUSHBACK, THE GROUND CREW INFORMED THE FLT CREW (VIA INTERCOM) THAT THE BYPASS PIN WAS REMOVED & THE STEERING WAS CONNECTED. THE GROUND CREWMAN ENDED THE CONVERSTATION BY STATING 'YOU GENTLEMEN HAVE A NICE TRIP, SEE YOU ANOTHER DAY.' THE INTERCOM WAS DISCONNECTED & THE CAPTAIN STARTED TO TAXI, BEFORE RECEIVING A VISUAL SIGNAL FROM THE GROUND CREW & BEFORE THE TUG WAS REMOVED FROM THE AIRPLANE'S PATH. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE AIRPLANE HIT THE TOP OF THE TUG & DAMAGED THE LOWER RIGHT PART OF THE FORWARD FUSELAGE (BELOW THE COCKPIT WINDOWS).
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE CAPTAIN TO FOLLOW COMPANY PUSHBACK PROCEDURES AND NOT GETTING A RELEASE BEFORE STARTING TO TAXI.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88FA233
- Event ID
- 20001213X26783
- Case number
- CHI88FA233
- 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: b768cc113b9a2a662cea0379cd43393a88e7255079e8b3c56f36eada51d21776; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:19:01.002Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N729RW; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, NWAA.