United Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 incident
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 · Incident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries and aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85IA074
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 Possible conflict
- 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
- N1842U
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, CATo 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 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
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Clearance › Not maintained
- Ground personnel › Crew/group coordination, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Washington, DC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
NORTHWEST FLIGHT 78 (NW78), A B-757, WAS PARKED AT GATE 17 FACING EAST WITH MOBILE PASSENGER LOUNGE (MPL) DOCKED AT L1 DOOR. UNITED 52, A DC-10, TAXIED IN EASTERLY DIRECTION BY LEFT SIDE OF NW78, THEN TURNED RIGHT TO SOUTHEASTERLY HEADING TO FOLLOW LEAD-IN LINE TO GATE 15. DC-10 WAS ON LEAD-IN HEADING WITH NOSEWHEEL ABOUT 3' TO 6' RIGHT OF LINE & FOLLOWING SIGNALS FROM GUIDEMAN, WHEN RIGHT WINGTIP STRUCK AFT END OF MPL. DRIVER OF MPL WAS STANDING ON GANGWAY & FELL BACKWARD INTO 757 & RECEIVED MINOR INJURY. BOTH PLANES RECEIVED MINOR DAMAGE; MPL WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DAMAGED. UNITED HAD RECENTLY BEGUN TO USE GATE 15 FOR DC-10'S. AT THAT TIME, NW WAS USING DC-10 ON FLT 78, WHICH DEPLANED THRU L2 DOOR, BUT A WEEK BEFORE INCIDENT, DC-10 WAS REPLACED WITH 757 THAT NORMALLY DEPLANED THRU L1 DOOR. NW78'S ARRIVAL WAS LATE THAT DAY, SO DEPLANING WAS STILL IN PROGRESS WHEN FLIGHT 52 ARRIVED. MEASUREMENTS CONFIRMED INSUFFICIENT CLEARANCE EXISTED FOR DC-10 AT GATE 15, WHEN MPL WAS DOCKED WITH 757 AT GATE 17.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85IA074
- Event ID
- 20001214X37722
- Case number
- BFO85IA074
- 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. 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: ec1c8cba165b6b729c6fc8a733e092f53340432b1b9ae1342ecfd641d479beca; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:15:17.551Z.