Freedom Airlines Embraer EMB145 LR accident
Embraer EMB145 LR · Accident during pushback
From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA09FA025
- 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
Embraer EMB145 LR
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB145
- 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
- N844MJ
- Operator
- Freedom Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, NYTo 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 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
- Pushback/towing · engine not operating
- Defining eventThe 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft handling/service
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that the airplane was parked at Gate M, and they were in the process of calling for pushback from the gate when the airplane's right aileron and wing assembly were struck by a baggage cart attached to a ground tug.
The tug operator stated that due to heavy winds and pelting sleet his vision was impaired and that he had closed his eyes just prior to his tug nearing the wing.
The operator's investigation identified a number of factors that contributed to the tug driver's collision with the parked airplane including failure to follow procedures when operating motorized equipment inside the Diamond of Safety, failure to properly position safety cones on the right wing, failure to ensure safe driving in inclement weather, and failure to take a safety time out when unsure of the intended path of the moving vehicle.
Probable cause
The tug driver's failure to comply with ramp safety procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA09FA025
- Event ID
- 20090114X61852
- Case number
- DCA09FA025
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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. 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: 8d522c043dff4ca3874d1fae357c529a71ccc0d6c94c751438957d4ef4626a93; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:41:23.543Z.