Flight 1205 · McDonnell Douglas MD-10
McDonnell Douglas MD-10 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06LA038
- 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
McDonnell Douglas MD-10
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-10
- 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
- N359FE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, ILTo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Miscellaneous eqpt/furnishings › Not secured
- Unknown › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane contacted a 747 crew stair structure with the underside of the left wing while taxiing. The stairs were located on the left edge of the taxiway, partially on the grass. The captain, who was a company line check airman (LCA), was sitting in the right seat during the flight. This LCA was conducting upgrade training for a captain trainee who was sitting in the left seat. In addition, an FAA inspector who was observing the training was sitting in the cockpit jump seat during the flight. While taxiing the LCA became occupied with an auxiliary power unit (APU) warning light in the cockpit. The crew was unaware that the airplane contacted something until they were informed of the damage by maintenance personnel when they reached their destination. On the night of the accident, the stairs were located at the edge of the taxiway, partially on the grass. The location of the stairs was reported to air traffic control by another airplane that taxied out after the accident airplane. Three days after the accident, the damaged stairs were located against a hangar. The damage to the underside of the left wing consisted of a series of parallel scratches and gouges from the leading edge of the wing to the trailing edge of the aileron. The scratches and gouges contained areas of red, white, and yellow paint transfers. These paint transfers matched the color of the stairs. The LCA and the captain trainee both reported that they never saw the stairs. The FAA inspector stated he saw the stairs, but thought the airplane had cleared them. None of the three reported feeling the impact with the stairs. The operator of the stairs reported that the stairs were secured against a hangar after they last used them on the day prior to the accident. The only lights near the area where the stairs were located were the taxiway lights. The accident occurred on an overcast night. The winds at the time of the accident were gusting to 27 knots.
Probable cause
The failure of the flight crew to see and avoid the crew stairs and the failure of unknown persons to properly secure the stairs after use. Factors associated with the accident were the dark light conditions and the gusty winds.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06LA038
- Event ID
- 20051209X01956
- Case number
- CHI06LA038
- 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: 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 2005-11-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ea002b84ec895e8eeba5c7be630af66a4c58cd9025569423a30392b4d4cc34e2; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:57:21.473Z.