IAD05CA019 · Embraer EMB-135BJ
Flight Options Embraer EMB-135BJ · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's aircraft involved. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD05CA019
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Embraer EMB-135BJ Possible conflict
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-135
- 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
- N995CW
- Operator
- Flight Options
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Dulles, VATo Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), Cleveland, OH
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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 · from 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
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
With the co-pilot steering the airplane from the left seat at night, the airplane taxied to a ramp area. Another airplane had been parked perpendicular to the ramp entrance with its nose wheel approximately 30 feet from the front of a hangar, and with its tail approximately 45 feet from the edge of the ramp pavement. Per their standard operating procedures, the flight crew waited for a marshaller to assist with parking. When one did not arrive, the flight crew decided to taxi behind the parked airplane. As the pilot attempted to verbally direct the co-pilot and observe the position of the right wingtip, the airplanes right winglet collided with the parked airplane. At the time of the accident the pilot had been awake since 0300. The marked centerline of the taxiway that led into the ramp area, was located 18 feet 5 inches from left side of the taxiway, but stopped short of the ramp area approximately 93 feet prior to where the accident took place. No non-movement area boundary markings were noted. The ramp had been repaved with asphalt approximately 36 days prior to the accident, and no markings existed to provide a visual cue to permit taxiing along a designated path, nor were any edge markings or edge lighting installed, to define the edge of the usable pavement.
Probable cause
The pilot in command's improper decision to continue taxi without a ground marshaller, and her misjudged clearance from a parked airplane, which resulted in a ground collision during taxi. Factors which contributed to the accident were fatigue, night conditions, and a lack of ramp markings.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05CA019
- Event ID
- 20041216X01997
- Case number
- IAD05CA019
- 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: 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: 615e20b09cf195c4ef6cad3e5093b3a44ef9b34d3d80d4cf532e5c809e1e5c41; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:28:36.272Z.