TED Airlines Airbus A320-232 incident
Airbus A320-232 and Airbus Industrie A320-232 · Incident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05IA200
- 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
- Incident
- 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 · Airbus A320-232
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A320
- 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
- N496UA
- Operator
- TED Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZTo 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
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Airbus Industrie A320-232
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A320
- 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
- N472UA
- Operator
- TED Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, COTo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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
- Standing
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Flightcrew of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
- Ground personnel › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While taxiing east on Taxiway AA toward Gate A-48, an Airbus A320 collided with another Airbus A320 from the same company that had been pushed back from Gate A-40 and was holding on the ramp for the inbound traffic to clear. According to company policy, airplanes departing Concourse A were pushed back until the main landing gear wheels sat on the centerline of Taxiway AS, the northern taxiway. This policy assured airplanes taxiing on Taxiway AA (the southern taxiway) adequate wingtip clearance (about 30 feet), assuming their nose wheel stayed on the centerline. A witness said the holding airplane was pushed back too far from Taxiway AS and the taxiing airplane's nose wheel was on the centerline of Taxiway AA. As the inbound airplane taxied behind the holding airplane, its left winglet cut through the bottom section of holding airplane's tail cone. The flight crew on the inbound airplane recognized that the holding airplane was pushed back further than normal from the gate and elected to increase their wing tip clearance by moving to the right of the Taxiway AA centerline approximately 5 to 6 feet. As they approached the holding airplane, the captain reduced forward speed to a crawl, determined there was sufficient clearance between the two airplanes, and continued to taxi to their assigned gate. The flight crew onboard the holding airplane felt the airplane move slightly as the inbound airplane taxied behind them. Shortly after, both flight crews were notified of the collision.
Probable cause
The captain's failure to maintain sufficient clearance while taxiing to an assigned gate, which resulted in a collision with an airplane that had been pushed back (and holding) from another gate. Also causal was the tug operator's failure to follow published company procedures resulting in the holding airplane being pushed back too far, which reduced wingtip clearance of the taxiing airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05IA200
- Event ID
- 20050817X01269
- Case number
- DFW05IA200
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (6)
- 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: 9a4ea6a75eddd1c5c0107126ad4ab62f4098c4ea327cfc8fafcd31a02269021c; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:59:35.301Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N496UA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N472UA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.