US Airways Airbus Industrie A320-214 incident
Airbus Industrie A320-214 and Bemidji Aviation Services Beech C-99 · Incident: near midair/TCAS alert/loss of separation during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- OPS10IA574
- 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
- Incident
- 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 · Airbus Industrie A320-214
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A320
- 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
- N122US
- Operator
- US Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minneapolis, MNTo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NC
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Near midair/TCAS alert/loss of separation
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · Beech C-99
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft C-99
- 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
- N7212P
- Operator
- Bemidji Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Minneapolis, MNTo not recorded
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Near midair/TCAS alert/loss of separation
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
An Airbus 320, operating as US Airways flight 1848, a scheduled 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121 passenger flight, departed Minneapolis from runway 30R and was instructed by the Local North Controller to turn left to a heading of 260. A Beech 99, operating as Bemidji Aviation Services flight 46, a 14 CFR Part 135 cargo flight, was cleared for takeoff from runway 30L by the Local South Controller and was instructed to fly a heading of 180 after departure. The pilot had not yet initiated the turn when the two aircraft crossed paths about 1/2 mile northwest of the end of runway 30L, with an estimated separation of zero feet laterally and 50 feet vertically. The Local South Controller later stated that he became distracted in dealing with a ground operation and did not notice that the Beech was not turning as soon as he expected. An operational error occurred when the aircraft continued straight out from runway 30L and conflicted with the Airbus. No injuries or damage were reported and both aircraft continued to their destinations. The reported ceiling at the time was 900 feet and the visibility was 10 miles.
Probable cause
The Local North Controller's issuance of a left-turn heading to the Airbus without establishing the position and heading of the Beech. Contributing to the incident was the Local South Controller's distraction with a ground movement operation and lack of awareness of the Beech's heading and the impending conflict. Also contributing to the incident was the Beech's delayed turn to the assigned departure heading.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record OPS10IA574
- Event ID
- 20100916X50512
- Case number
- OPS10IA574
- 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, 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: 28dc8f2c8ce7b12ea336f9fddf20727c08e2e5976a2b9a338ed13a62f0be02de; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:17:26.433Z.