Airtran Airways Flight 460
Boeing 717-200 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during pushback
From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL03LA124
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 717-200
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 717
- 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
- N970AT
- Operator
- AirTran Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), Atlanta, GATo Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Baltimore, MD
- 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
- Pushback/towing
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the captain, after receiving permission from the ramp tower to commence the power-back, he indicated to the marshaller he was cleared for the power-back. During the power-back while lining up parallel with the north-south taxi line the captain felt a loud thump on the left side of the airplane. During the power-back turn a baggage tug was observed moving behind the airplane. The marshaller observed the tug driver getting jet blasted and one of the carts lying on the ground. The left wing walker, observed the tug driver come to a complete stop in the neutral area. The wing walker motioned the tug driver cross behind the airplane before the marshaller began the power-back. The tug driver pointed at his tug as if something had gone wrong, and the airplane collided with the baggage cart. The tug driver, observed the wing walker clear the tug to pass behind the airplane. As the tug driver proceeded slowly behind the airplane, the tug driver saw the trailing edge of the airplane coming towards him. In an attempt to speed up to avoid the airplane, the wingtip of the airplane struck the forth cart knocking it off of the transporter. Examination of the left wing revealed, the trailing edge of the aileron and wingtip were buckled. Review of the Airtran Standard Practice Flight Crew Powerback procedures, General Guidelines 6719.3, Part (D) states: It is the responsibility of the ground crew to ensure that the ramp area is clear of foreign objects and conflicting traffic before and during powerback.
Probable cause
The failure of the ground crew to follow powerback procedures and directives.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL03LA124
- Event ID
- 20030813X01321
- Case number
- ATL03LA124
- 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, coordinates. 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: dde61e8a8089b648564fc77425460aeca82dcad98ce86d8109f75d94d3156a1f; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:43:27.078Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N970AT; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, ZZDA.