ExpressJet Airlines Embraer EMB-145LR accident
Embraer EMB-145LR and Scandinavian Airlines System Airbus A330 343X · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA13FA082
- 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 · Embraer EMB-145LR
- Aircraft type
- Embraer EMB-145
- 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
- N17560
- Operator
- ExpressJet Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJTo Nashville International Airport (BNA), Nashville, TN
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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 A330 343X
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A330
- 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
- LN-RKO
- Operator
- Scandinavian Airlines System
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Newark, NJTo Oslo-Gardermoen International Airport (ENGM), Oslo
- 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 · to runway
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Flight 4226 was stationary on the taxiway with the parking brake set and was facing away from flight 908 at the time of the collision. Flight 4226 flight crew parked on taxiway R between taxiway M and taxiway Y. They were told to hold short of taxiway Y to give way to a B737 that would be passing on taxiway Y. It could not be determined where on taxiway R the airplane was parked, but to conflict with flight 908's wingtip, the airplane would have to be closer to taxiway M rather than closer to taxiway Y.
Since taxiway M would have been behind flight 4226's airplane, the crew most likely was not completely aware of how far ahead of taxiway M or how much clearance they were leaving behind them when they parked. If the airplane was parked with the airplane's longitudinal axis on or parallel to the centerline of taxiway R, the crew would not have been able to see flight 908's left wingtip or judge its proximity to their airplane before the collision.
If the crew of flight 908 had requested flight 4226's crew to taxi forward to provide adequate clearance, there would have been sufficient space on taxiway R for flight 4226 to move forward in order to ensure clearance between both flight 908 and the approaching B737. However, the crew of flight 908 did not make any communications request for flight 4226 to move their airplane forward on taxiway R.
As a result, flight 908 sustained minor damage to its left winglet and flight 4226 sustained substantial damage to their empennage due to the captain misjudging the clearance distance. The crew of flight 908 could see flight 4226's airplane parked ahead of them on taxiway M, and their statements indicated that in the turn they were concerned about whether they had sufficient clearance to taxi past the aircraft. The captain stated that he was focused on clearing the wing of the ExpressJet and neglected to focus on clearing the tail of the parked aircraft. If an anti-collision aid had been installed on flight 908's airplane, it may have prevented the accident.
Probable cause
the failure of flight 908's captain to ensure adequate clearance between the wingtip of his airplane and flight 4226's empennage when he attempted to pass behind the other airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA13FA082
- Event ID
- 20130502X52359
- Case number
- DCA13FA082
- 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, cause areas. 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: 6b05069d5f8eebdd0cc5f1080cc6ca3b68eda9baf8ad9c94fd08a99db12c0d0b; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:22:22.425Z.