American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 incident
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and Royal Air Force Vickers VC10 · Incident: near collision between aircraft en route
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC89IA063
- 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 · McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- 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
- N153AA
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU), San Juan, PRTo John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), NEW YORK, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 · Vickers VC10
- Aircraft type
- Vickers VC10
- 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
- UNK
- Operator
- Royal Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport (MZBZ), BelizeTo L.F. Wade International Airport (TXKF), BERMUDA
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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) › IFR separation standards, not maintained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
AMERICAN FLT 1180 (MCDONNELL-DOUGLAS DC-10) WAS NORTHBOUND OVR THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AT FLT LVL 350 AS A BRITISH ROYAL AIR FORCE VICKERS VC10 WAS CRUISING EAST AT THE SAME ALT (NON-STANDARD ALT FOR THE VC10'S DRCTN OF FLT). THEY WERE IN A NON-RADAR AIRSPACE UNDER CTL OF NEW YORK ARTCC, USING NON-DIRECT RADIO COMM THRU ARINC. BOTH WERE IN VMC, ALTHOUGH OPERG UNDER IFR RULES. THE 2 ACFT CONVERGED AS THEY CROSSED OVR ELWOD INTXN. THE VC10 PASSED IN FRONT OF FLT 1180, FM LEFT TO RGT, WITH LESS THAN REQUIRED IFR SEPN. NEITHER FLT CREW SAW THE OTR ACFT UNTIL FLT 1180 FLEW THRU THE WAKE FM THE VC10. THE CREW OF FLT 1180 THEN SAW THE VC10 FLYING AWAY AT THE SAME ALT WHICH THEY ESTD WAS LESS THAN 1 MI AWAY. THE STRIP FOR THE VC10 WAS MARKED WITH A RED UNDERLINE & AN ARROW TO DEPICT ITS DRCTN OF FLT & NON-STANDARD ALT. THE CTLR SAID SHEWAS AWARE OF THE VC10, BUT DIDN'T SEE THE STRIP FOR FLT 1180 IN THE BAY FOR ELWOD INTXN. WHEN THE CTLR ASSUMED HER DUTY PSN, THE PREVIOUS CTLR TOLD HER THE VC10 WAS CLEAR (HAD NO CONFLICTING TRAFFIC) THRU STOCK, ELWOD & DEENO INTXNS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC89IA063
- Event ID
- 20001213X27488
- Case number
- NYC89IA063
- 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: c5da9a0591c2a376a77967537bde86568f01edafe91a7d3d19a7bca624aaca4a; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:15:33.776Z.