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Air France Flight 695

17 Jan 2013 · Miami, FL, United States

Boeing 777 - 300 and Aerolíneas Argentinas Airbus A340 - 300 · Accident: ground collision before flight

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Event

NTSB case
DCA13LA039
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 · Boeing 777 - 300

Aircraft type
Boeing 777
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
F-GZNI
Operator
Air France
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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 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
Prior to flight
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
Ground collision
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 · Airbus A340 - 300

Aircraft type
Airbus A340
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
LV-BMT
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ezeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (SAEZ), Buenos AiresTo Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FL
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
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
Ground collision
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Minor

Cause areas

  • Personnel issues › Action/decision

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

After arriving from Ministro Pistarini International Airport (SAEZ), Buenos Aires, Argentina, LV-BMT was directed by Miami ground control to taxi to the passenger terminal via taxiway Q. According to recorded data, LV-BMT was directed to spot 14W and cleared to gate H8A by Miami-Dade Aviation Department Aircraft Gate Control (Miami Gates). About 3 minutes later, the Miami Gates controller attempted to contact LV-BMT three times but used the incorrect flight number. On the third attempt, the crew of LV-BMT responded and were told they were "on the wrong line." The crew responded "14 Whiskey" but did not stop their taxi. While taxiing from spot 14W the left winglet of LV-BMT struck F-GNZI, which was parked at gate H10.

Probable cause

LV-BMT flight crew's incorrect evaluation of the clearance between the two aircraft, leading to the inadvertent collision of the left winglet with the horizontal stabilizer and elevator of F-GNZI. Contributing to the accident were the incorrect instructions given by the Miami Gates controller to the LV-BMT flight crew.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DCA13LA039
Event ID
20130118X53100
Case number
DCA13LA039
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: ec7d5d854dd626fb4c585aca7fd25dccbe80ca985b253d8fea81bcf9cd63bd7c; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:22:13.238Z.