Delta Boeing 727-232 incident
Boeing 727-232 and Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-2H4 · Incident: near collision between aircraft during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87IA179
- 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 727-232
- 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
- N482DA
- Operator
- Delta
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nashville International Airport (BNA)To McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS), Knoxville, TN
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 737-2H4
- 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
- N50SW
- Operator
- Southwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nashville International Airport (BNA)To MID · 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Copilot/second pilot › Atc clearance, misread
- Pilot in command › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Atc clearance, misread
- Pilot of other aircraft › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT APRX 2211 CDT, DELTA FLT 314 (BOEING 727, N482DA) WAS CLRD TO TAXI TO RWY 31 WITH INFO INDIA. INFO INDIA INDCD RWY 31WAS ACTIVE. SOON THEREAFTER, SOUTHWEST FLT 715 (BOEING 737, N50SW) REQD & RECD TAXI CLNC TO RWY 13 FOR TKOF. TO ACCOMMO-DATE INCOMING TRAFFIC THAT HAD REQD RWY 13 FOR LNDG, FLT 715 (AT THE APCH END OF RWY 13) WAS CLRD FOR IMMEDIATE TKOF. INITIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (OF TKOF CLNC, RECD BY TWR) WAS GARBLED FLWD BY AN AUDIBLE '. . . 715.' THE TWR CTLR DID NOT REALIZE BOTH FLTS HAD ACKNOWLEDGED THE TKOF CLNC, SINCE FLT 314 WAS STILL TAXIING TO RWY 31. BOTH FLTS STARTED DEPG FM OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE RWY. AT 1ST, NEITHER FLT CREW COULD SEE THE OTR DUE TO A CROWN IN THE RWY. WHEN THEY SAW EACH OTR, FLT 715 WAS APCHG V1 SPEED & ELECTED TO CONT THE TKOF. FLT 314 HAD JUST BGN ITS TKOF ROLL & ABORTED BY TURNING OFF ON A TWY. AN INV REVEALED THAT BFR DEPG, WHEN FLT 314 WAS APCHG RWY 31 FOR TKOF, THE 1ST OFFICER (F/O) THOUGHT HE HEARD CLNC FOR TKOF. THE CAPT OF FLT 314 ASKED THE F/O IF HE WAS SURE & THE F/O REPLIED 'YES' & SAID HE HAD ACKNOWLEDGED THE CLNC.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87IA179
- Event ID
- 20001213X31086
- Case number
- ATL87IA179
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (6)
- 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, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-06-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4858cd3c29a67685c6ed90f66645ecd878ed051b415812e0feefe646751c77f4; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:40:21.556Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N50SW; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, SWAA.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "DELTA FLT 314 (BOEING 727, N482DA) WAS CLRD TO TAXI TO RWY 31"