United Airlines Boeing 777-22B accident
Boeing 777-22B and All Nippon Airways Boeing 777-281 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during pushback
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA007
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Boeing 777-22B
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 777
- 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
- N222UA
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Francisco International Airport (KSFO), San Francisco, CATo JKIX · Osaka
- 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
Aircraft 2 · Boeing 777-281
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 777
- 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
- JA709A
- Operator
- All Nippon Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Francisco International Airport (KSFO), San Francisco, CATo JRAA · Tokyo
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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
- Flightcrew › Clearance, not maintained
- Flightcrew › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
An All Nippon Airways (ANA) Boeing 777-281 and a United Airlines (UAL) Boeing 777-22B both sustained substantial damage during an on-ground collision between both airplanes' right wing tips. The collision occurred in a nonmovement area ramp surrounding the G terminal. This ramp area is under the control of a local ground control tower operated by United Airlines. Both aircraft were under the control of the ramp control tower at the time of the collision. The transfer of ground control responsibility from the ramp control tower to the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Tower for an aircraft arriving or departing the G terminal is Spot 10. Spot 10 is where the G-ramp intersects taxiway A. Gate G-102 is the closest terminal gate to Spot 10 and is along the southern boundary of taxiway A. The ANA 777 had been cleared to taxi to Spot 10 by the ramp control tower was taxing outbound past gate G-102. The UAL 777 had been cleared by the ramp control tower to push back from gate G-102. Review of the recorded radio communications revealed that the ramp controller did not issue a cautionary advisory to either crew regarding the movements of the respective airplanes. The UAL 777 push back tractor driver saw the ANA 777 approach and stopped the push back just moments before the collision. The ANA flight crew saw the UAL 777 and maneuvered slightly to the left, away from the airplane, in an attempt to ensure wing tip clearance just prior to contact. None of the pilots on the ANA 777 could visually see their airplane's wingtips from the cockpit. The UAL 777's wing walker was on the left side of the airplane blocking traffic and noticed the ANA 777's approach and collision just moments after the UAL 777's push back was halted.
Probable cause
the failure of the taxiing Boeing 777's flight crew to maintain clearance from a Boeing 777 that was being pushed back from the gate. Contributing to the accident was the failure of the local ramp controller to caution either aircrew of a possible movement conflict.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA007
- Event ID
- 20031022X01799
- Case number
- LAX04LA007
- 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: f83ebc1277180f0c9980ab53974c21579445bb4ee69db5c62f457f2df08001f2; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:39:00.610Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: operator. The NTSB narrative names the operator: "An All Nippon Airways (ANA) Boeing 777-281 and a United Airlines (UAL) Boeing 777-22B both sustained substantial damage"