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United Airlines Flight 827

3 Sept 1984 · Washington, DC, United States

Boeing 727-22 and New York Air McDonnell Douglas MD-80 · Incident: on ground/water collision with object while standing

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Event

NTSB case
BFO84IA005
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 727-22

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
N7078U
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo 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
Standing
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

Aircraft 2 · McDonnell Douglas MD-80

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
N780JA
Operator
New York Air
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington, DCTo Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJ
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 · to 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

  • Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged
  • Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, misjudged

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

MISHAP ACFT, NEW YORK AIR FLIGHT 306 (NYA 306) FOLLOWED A BOEING 727, UNITED FLIGHT 827 (UAL 827), TO THE RUN-UP AREA AND POSITIONED IN THE #2 SPOT FOR TAKEOFF, ANTICIPATING UAL 827 WOULD RECEIVE TAKEOFF CLEARANCE FIRST. NYA 306 WAS CLEARED FIRST FOR TAKEOFF INSTEAD AND PLT INITIATED A HARD RIGHT TURN BUT ACFT WAS NOT IN POSITION TO PASS CLEAR. NYA 306 LEFT WING TIP STRUCK TRAILING EDGE OF UAL 827 RIGHT WING.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record BFO84IA005
Event ID
20001214X40987
Case number
BFO84IA005
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
  • 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: ddd3c0bb47cc75d3de8c5eccdbe98c5ea2dcef5b519912afcb7d00b6a95e6771; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:37:29.921Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N7078U; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.