Metro Express British Aerospace 3101 accident
British Aerospace 3101 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL87FA250
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
British Aerospace 3101
- Aircraft type
- British Aerospace 3101
- 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
- N407MX
- Operator
- Metro Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (Lovell Field) (CHA), Chattanooga, TNTo not recorded
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Driver of vehicle › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Driver of vehicle › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS STRUCK BY AN EASTBOUND, AIRLINE EMPLOYEE BUS WHILE TAXIING SOUTH ON THE RAMP TO THE ASSIGNED GATE. THE BUS IMPACTED THE ACFT RT WING TIP. A PAX IN THE BUS REPORTED THAT SHE WARNED THE BUS DRIVER TO WATCH OUT FOR THE AIRPLANE PRIOR TO THE COLLISION, BUT THE DRIVER CONTINUED TO LOOK STRAIGHT AND MAINTAIN SPEED. AFTER THE PAX WARNED THE DRIVER A SECOND TIME, THE DRIVER ATTEMPTED TO BRAKE THE BUS TO A STOP AND AVOID THE COLLISION. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE NAVIGATION AND ROTATING BEACON WERE ON THE ENTIRE TIME. ACCORDING TO ARPT GROUND TRAFFIC RULES AND REGULATIONS, AIRCRAFT HAVE THE RIGHT-OF-WAY OVER VEHICULAR TRAFFIC AT ALL TIMES,
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL87FA250
- Event ID
- 20001213X31995
- Case number
- ATL87FA250
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1987-09-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dd0a2a81c7d91d3dd0339547f5095f95843c4ae72a0c806045c99897fd2bc4c0; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:37:57.997Z.