DFW07CA189 · Mitsubishi MU-2B-36
Mitsubishi MU-2B-36 · Accident: propeller/rotor contact to person while standing
From William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) to Hobby Airport, TX
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW07CA189
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Mitsubishi MU-2B-36
- Aircraft type
- Mitsubishi MU-2
- 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
- N6kf
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), Houston, TXTo Hobby Airport, TX
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Propeller/rotor contact to person
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Ground personnel › 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
The high-wing twin-engine airplane was not damaged and a lineman was seriously injured when the lineman inadvertently walked into the turning propeller for the number 1 engine while undergoing ground operations prior to the night flight. The lineman, who was reported to have completed all required training, recently changed work shifts and collectively had a total of six-months of experience. It was also reported that normally aircrews remove their own wheel chocks. The pilot stated that as the airplane completed both engine starts, in preparation for flight, the employee quickly approached the airplane to unplug the ground power unit (GPU) when he preceded to cross beneath the left wing from forward-to-aft retrieving the left main landing gear wheel chocks. While recovering the left wheel chocks the linemen was struck by the left engine propeller blade sustaining serious injuries. The airplane was standing at the time of the mishap. The pilot-in-command then performed an engine shutdown, exited the aircraft and assisted the injured linemen. Weather at the airport was not a factor in the mishap.
Probable cause
The failure of the ramp employee to maintain clearance from the rotating propeller. A contributing factor was the prevailing night conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW07CA189
- Event ID
- 20070927X01458
- Case number
- DFW07CA189
- 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, damage. 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: 202b0f00c7f2b524b63a25f67f6a444d8007fc17a2b41425a8fb5b045a15e228; retrieved 2026-09-24T03:49:43.943Z.