Continental Airlines Boeing 737-824 accident
Boeing 737-824 and Continental Express Embraer EMB-145LR · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
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
- IAD05LA118
- 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 737-824
- 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
- N73270
- Operator
- Continental Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJTo Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Embraer EMB-145LR
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-145
- 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
- N10575
- Operator
- Continental Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR), Newark, NJTo not recorded
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Airport facilities, taxiway marking › Not installed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Six Embraer 145 airplanes were parked side-by-side in an unmarked, paved "run-up block" area between two parallel taxiways at a large, international airport, as they waited for further instruction from air traffic control (ATC). A Boeing 737-824 was instructed by ATC to continue on the taxiway, behind the line of airplanes, and park between the fifth and sixth airplane in the row. With the nose wheel centered on the taxi line, the right winglet of the Boeing struck the tails of the first two airplanes parked in the "run-up block," which resulted in substantial damage to one parked airplane. According to Advisory Circular 150/5300-13, Taxiway and Taxilane Design Rationale, "The need for ample wingtip clearance is driven by the fact that the pilots of most modern jets cannot see their airplane's wingtips." Taxiway Centerline to Object Separation states: "...a minimum separation between taxiway centerline and an object is 0.70 times the wingspan of the most demanding airplane plus 10 feet (3m)." According to the Airman's Information Manual, 2-3-4b. Taxiway Markings, Taxiway Centerline: "The taxiway centerline...provides a visual cue to permit taxiing along a designated path. Ideally the aircraft should be kept centered over this line during taxi to ensure wing-tip clearance." According to the FAA inspector who responded to the scene, the nose wheel of the Boeing was centered over the taxiway centerline.
Probable cause
The airport's failure to install markings on a parking "block" that bordered the taxiway, which failed to provide adequate clearance between taxiing airplanes and airplanes parked in the block. Factors in the accident were air traffic control's use of the unmarked parking "block," and the flight crew's misjudgement of the clearance between their airplane and the parked airplanes in the block, during taxi.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD05LA118
- Event ID
- 20050825X01313
- Case number
- IAD05LA118
- 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: f21046306a42ed13ce4403bf628d4c8c445a65494aefc5c21813dc233150e9bf; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:59:32.013Z.