Frontier Airlines Boeing 737-291 accident
Boeing 737-291 · Accident while taxiing
From Denver, CO to Rock Springs, WY
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN83LA026
- 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 737-291
- 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
- N7346F
- Operator
- Frontier Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Denver, COTo Rock Springs, WY
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Brakes(normal), improper use of
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Denver, CO, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING A "POWER-BACK" OPERATION FROM THE TERMINAL GATE, A GROUND SIGNAL PERSON AND TWO WING WALKER WERE USED IN ACCORDANCE WITH PROCEDURES. AFTER REVERSE THRUST WAS APPLIED AND THE AIRCRAFT WAS ROLLING BACKWARDS. THE SIGNAL PERSON COMMUNICATED AN EMERGENCY STOP SIGNAL TO THE PILOT WHEN HE SAW CROSSING GROUND TRAFFIC (ANOTHER AIRCRAFT). WHEN THE CAPTAIN SAW THE SIGNAL, HE TRANSITIONED BRAKES. AT THAT TIME, A FLIGHT ATTENDANT WAS THROWN AGAINST THE CORNER OF A CART IN THE GALLEY AND INJURED. ACCORDING TO THE POWER-BACK PROCEDURES, THE AIRCRAFT WILL BE STOPPED (BOTH IN NORMAL AND EMERGENCY SITUATIONS) BY A SIGNAL FOR STRAIGHT AHEAD MOVEMENT. THE CAPTAIN WILL STOP THE PLANE BY QUIETLY COMING OUT OF REVERSE AND APPLYING FORWARD THRUST. THE USE OF BRAKES IS PROHIBITED WHILE THE AIRCRAFT IS MOVING BACKWARDS. THE SIGNAL PERSON USED THE FORWARD SIGNAL, THEN CROSSED HIS WANDS FOR A NORMAL (BRAKING) STOP DURING THE EMERGENCY STOP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN83LA026
- Event ID
- 20020917X04570
- Case number
- DEN83LA026
- 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 1982-12-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d56cd9402abd39c8c05d0510a76f643a9e885402260ba96c728888445b86a22c; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:04:09.116Z.