Air Canada Flight 723
Airbus Industrie A319-112 and Embraer EMB-170 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC06LA222
- 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 · Airbus Industrie A319-112
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A319
- 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
- C-GJTA
- Operator
- Air Canada
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), New York, NYTo Toronto Pearson International Airport (CYYZ), Toronto
- 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 129: Foreign
- 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 · Embraer EMB-170
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-170
- 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
- N864RW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), New York, NYTo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Atc clearance, incorrect
- Copilot/second pilot › Clearance, misjudged
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Airbus A319 was cleared to cross an active runway by a ground controller while an airplane was on short final. An Embraer EMB-170 was stopped 16th in line for takeoff with the parking brake engaged, on a perpendicular taxiway with its tail in close proximity to the taxiway the A319 just entered. While taxiing, the captain of the Airbus realized that the Embraer, which was stopped on the perpendicular taxiway, would be in close proximity on his right side. After crossing the active runway, and while approaching the EMB-170, both the captain and first officer became concerned as to whether the tail of their A319 had actually passed inside the hold short line for the active runway they just crossed. As the A319 approached the EMB-170 the captain slowed his airplane to approximately 2 knots, and taxied well to the left of the centerline. The captain of the A319 then lost sight of the EMB-170 and asked the first officer to "confirm clear of the Embraer." The first officer gave a verbal response along with a "thumbs up." Approximately 2 seconds later the captain asked the first officer "confirm still clear?" and the first officer responded "clear but close." Moments later as the captain was getting ready to ask the first officer for confirmation for a third time, the right wingtip of their airplane made contact with the EMB-170 airplane's right elevator. Sunset had occurred approximately 6 minutes prior and there was no lunar illumination. According to recorded voice data, the ground controller had instructed the A319 to, "keep his speed up" while crossing the runway since he had an airplane on a two mile final and then to join a taxiway which was past the stationary EMB-170. This required the A319 to pass behind it, despite its 111-foot wingspan. At approximately the time that the collision occurred the controller asked the EMB-170 if they could "pull up just a little bit" but, the first officer of the EMB-170 moments later asked over the radio if they had just been struck. A review of the airport layout plan and satellite imagery revealed, that the hold short line was located approximately 245 feet from the shoulder of the runway and the width of the taxiway was 75 feet.
Probable cause
The Airbus first officer's misjudged clearance from the EMB-170. Also causal was the ground controller's decision to issue a taxi clearance for the Airbus to pass behind the EMB-170. A factor to the accident was the light condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC06LA222
- Event ID
- 20061015X01521
- Case number
- NYC06LA222
- 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: a84a06907f2f273856fee385dfb65b343336efebcdb816e0ca66975e19eac77e; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:50:28.717Z.