Air China Airlines Flight 1065
Boeing B747-433BCF and JetBlue Airways Embraer EMB-190 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC08LA062
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Boeing B747-433BCF
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747
- 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
- B-2477
- Operator
- Air China Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AKTo John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, NY
- 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 · 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
- 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-190
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-190
- 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
- N184JB
- Operator
- JetBlue Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nashville International Airport (BNA), Nashville, TNTo John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, NY
- 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) not 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
- 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
- Flightcrew › Clearance, not maintained
- Flightcrew › Distance, 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 passenger airline's EMB-190 was operated on a positioning flight, and landed at its destination in night instrument meteorological conditions. Due to ramp space limitations, the flight crew was instructed by company personnel to temporarily park on a cargo ramp that was unfamiliar to them. They taxied to the designated ramp, and were advised that a marshalling crew would be sent out as soon as one was available, but that they could expect a significant delay. The ramp markings were at least partially obscured due to several hours of freezing precipitation earlier in the day. The crew shut down the engines, but kept the cabin, navigation, beacon and logo lights illuminated. Shortly thereafter, a B-747 cargo airplane on an active taxiway attempted to pass behind the parked EMB-190. The B-747 crew noticed that the EMB-190 was "very close to the taxiway," and deviated approximately 12 feet from the taxiway centerline to avoid contacting the EMB-190. The B-747 crew believed that they had successfully cleared the EMB-190, but after they parked their airplane, they were advised that the right winglet of the B-747 struck the EMB-190 rudder, separated from the wing, and remained embedded in the other airplane. Subsequent to the accident, it was determined that the tail of the EMB-190 extended approximately 50 feet beyond the demarcation line of the non-movement area. The B-747 could have deviated further from the taxiway centerline to avoid the EMB-190 and still retain a 15 to 20 foot wheel clearance from the taxiway edge.
Probable cause
The infringement of the parked EMB-190 into the airport movement area, and the B-747 crew's failure to maintain separation between the airplanes in conditions of darkness. Contributing to the accident was the contaminated ramp, which obscured airport markings.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC08LA062
- Event ID
- 20080213X00187
- Case number
- NYC08LA062
- 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: 7dbf5eccdd847976a0b8cc3a38447e875df7e2cd7da3574987fbcda637f0d684; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:39:59.490Z.