American Eagle Airlines Embraer EMB 145LR incident
Embraer EMB 145LR and GoJet Airlines Bombardier Inc CL 600 2C10 700C · Incident: runway incursion (vehicle, aircraft or person) during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- OPS15IA011
- 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
- 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
- N698CB
- Operator
- American Eagle Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, ILTo John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH), Columbus, OH
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2004)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Runway incursion (vehicle, aircraft or person)
- 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 · Bombardier Inc CL 600 2C10 700C
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier CL-600
- 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
- N154GJ
- Operator
- GoJet Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, ILTo Toronto Pearson International Airport (CYYZ), Toronto
- Aircraft age
- About 10 years (built 2005)
- 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
- Runway incursion (vehicle, aircraft or person)
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight crew of GJS3710 was heads down during taxi and missed the turn from taxiway F to taxiway N, did not observe the flashing runway guard lights at the edge of runway 28R and taxiway F, and taxied onto runway 28R without clearance, nearly colliding with ENY3084. The closest proximity between center of each airplane was estimated to be about 94 feet, which corresponds to approximately 20 to 30 feet between wingtips.
According to interviews with the flight crew of GJS3710, the first officer was head down doing cockpit tasks and coordinating with the flight attendant for pre-takeoff passenger requirements. The captain, operating the aircraft, gave way to an inbound 757 on taxiway A. The captain stated that as he was approaching taxiway F, he looked down to confirm the frequency settings in the cockpit and when he looked up again, he thought he was passing taxiway B on taxiway F, but was actually passing taxiway N on taxiway F. He stated that he did not see the runway guard lights at the intersection of taxiway F and runway 28R. This loss of situation awareness resulted in GJS3710 entering runway 28R without clearance.
The ASDE-X was working normally and alarmed, indicating a conflict on runway 28R; however, the air traffic control front-line manager on duty in the tower stated that there was insufficient time to cancel ENY3084's takeoff clearance. ENY3084 maneuvered to the left of runway centerline to avoid GJS3710, and then continued takeoff.
Following the event, taxiway F was closed from taxiway N to taxiway P, removing direct access to the runway from the terminal ramp on taxiway F.
Probable cause
The flight crew's failure to manage cockpit tasks during taxi resulting in a loss of situation awareness and subsequently taxiing past a required turn point and onto an active runway without clearance. Contributing to the runway incursion was the ground controllers ineffective monitoring to ensure issued taxi instructions were followed.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record OPS15IA011
- Event ID
- 20150219X82450
- Case number
- OPS15IA011
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2015-02-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 98e1337f6e6bfb2db084b476cd2bcac7625a572b89592d7fac0a46dc7333c2f0; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:23:47.431Z.