Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-7H4 accident
Boeing 737-7H4 and Boeing 737-3H4 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's registration. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX06LA009
- 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 737-7H4
- 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
- N755SA
- Operator
- Southwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hollywood Burbank/Bob Hope Airport (BUR), Burbank, CATo 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 · 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
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Boeing 737-3H4
- 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
- N624SW
- Operator
- Southwest Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZTo Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, 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 · engine(s) operating
- 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 of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
- Flightcrew › Clearance, inadequate
- Object › Aircraft moving on ground
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 to park the left winglet of flight 1097 (N755SW) struck and became embedded in the right horizontal stabilizer of a company Boeing 737 (N624SW), operating as flight 2080. Flight 2080 was holding short of the active runway waiting to depart when the ground collision occurred. After landing, the crew of flight 1097 was cleared by the local ground controller to taxi to a holding area short of the flight's assigned gate and await further clearance to taxi to the gate for parking. During the taxi, flight 1097 taxied behind the parked flight 2080. The captain of flight 1097 believed there was enough clearance between his airplane and flight 2080; however, the left winglet struck the right horizontal stabilizer. The area where the collision occurred is in a designated non-visibility area for the air traffic control tower and is considered a non-movement area where the responsibility for maintaining separation and clearance from other aircraft lies entirely with the flight crew.
Probable cause
failure of the flight crew to maintain an adequate clearance from a stationary Boeing 737.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX06LA009
- Event ID
- 20051020X01700
- Case number
- LAX06LA009
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2005-10-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 59b600e7f77cce9f1faa2a3bfa7b39f0d97384291f68fb5f70333bad5d7f915a; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:58:21.279Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N755SA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, SWAA.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N624SW; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, SWAA.