FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

Continental… Boeing 727-100 accident

20 May 1983 · St. Louis, MO, United States

Boeing 727-100 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing

From an unrecorded airport to Denver International Airport (DEN)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
MKC83FA112
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
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

Boeing 727-100

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
N40483
Operator
Continental
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, CO
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged

Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of St. Louis, MO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.

NTSB narrative

THE ACFT WAS SCHEDULED AS CONTINENTAL FLT 415 & WAS DEPARTING FROM EASTERN AIRLINES GATE 14A. WHILE DEPARTING FROM THE GATE, THE AIRCREW TURNED LEFT TO AVOID A DC-9 PARKED AT GATE 14, THEN TURNED RIGHT TO A YELLOW TAXI LINE. WHILE MANEUVERING, THE LEFT WING TIP EXTENDED ACROSS DESIGNATED VEHICULAR TRAFFIC LANES & SCRAPED THE TOP OF A FUEL TRUCK. THE TRUCK WAS PARKED IN THE FURTHEST LANE FROM THE GATES & TAXI AREA. REPORTEDLY, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN SUFFICIENT CLEARANCE IF THE ACFT HAD BEEN TAXIING ALONG THE YELLOW TAXI LINE WITHOUT MANEUVERING.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record MKC83FA112
Event ID
20001214X43089
Case number
MKC83FA112
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: c03200d82d739cdd7808b11e6895cced360127f16668fcaf3fc049de4f6b5da6; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:58:52.544Z.
  • Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "THE ACFT WAS SCHEDULED AS CONTINENTAL FLT 415"