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United Airlines Boeing 737-322 incident

29 Oct 1987 · Chicago, IL, United States

Boeing 737-322 and Air Wisconsin Fokker F27-500 · Incident: near collision between aircraft during takeoff

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Event

NTSB case
CHI88IA015
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 737-322

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
N305UA
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)To Eppley Airfield (OMA), Omaha, NE
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

Aircraft 2 · Fokker F27-500

Aircraft type
Fokker F27
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
N511AW
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From General Mitchell International Airport (MKE), Milwaukee, WITo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Atc clearance, improper
  • Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Control tower service, inadequate

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Chicago, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE SOUTH RWYS (32L, 9R, & 4R) WERE BEING CTLD BY THE SOUTH LCL CTLR (SLC) & THE NORTH RWYS (9L & 4L) WERE CTLD BY THE NORTH LCL CTLR (NLC). AT 1543:26, SLC TOLD UNITED FLT 973 (BOEING 737) TO HOLD ON 32L & EXPECT A 3 MIN DELAY BFR TKOF. AIR WISCONSIN FLT 954 (FOKKER F27) HAD BGN A VISUAL APCH TO 9R. AT 1545:23, AFTER COORDG WITH NLC, SLC CLRD THE F27 TO CIRCLE (SIDE STEP) FOR A LNDG ON RWY 9L & CHG FREQ TO NLC. THE FINAL APCH PATH (EXTD CTRLN OF 9L) CROSSED OVR RWY 32L. AT 1546:53, SLC CLRD THE 737 TO TKOF. AT APRX V1 (133 KTS), THE 737 PLTS SAW THE F27 CONVERGING, AS IT WAS ABT TO CROSS THEIR INTENDED TKOF PATH. THE F27 CREW DID NOT SEE THE 737. THE 737 CAPT DID NOT THINK HE COULD SAFELY CROSS UNDER THE F27 OR ABORT THE TKOF. HE ELECTED TO AVOID THE F27 BY CLBG OVER THE OTR ACFT RATHER THAN PASSING UNDER IT. AFTER THIS INCIDENT, THE TWR PROCEDURE WAS CHGD SO THAT NO TKOF CLNC WOULD BE ISSUED TO A DEPG FLT ON RWY 32L UNTIL ARRIVING ACFT, CLRD TO LND ON RWY 9L, HAD REACHED THE THRESHOLD OF THAT RWY.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI88IA015
Event ID
20001213X32285
Case number
CHI88IA015
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: 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: 0f001d239b808fa802b219ed4734b35ec02d0292e4932f08e298219e461cbdab; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:35:59.813Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N305UA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, UALA.
  • Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "AIR WISCONSIN FLT 954 (FOKKER F27) HAD BGN A VISUAL APCH TO 9R"