American Airlines Airbus A319 115 112 accident
Airbus A319 115 112 and Boeing 737 800 · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA18CA043
- 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 · Airbus A319 115 112
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A319
- 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
- N9011P
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Toncontín Airport (TGU), TegucigalpaTo Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 4 years (built 2013)
- 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 · from 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
Aircraft 2 · Boeing 737 800
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N344PP
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU), San Juan, PRTo Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FL
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2017)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) 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
- 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
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
On December 3, 2017, about 1825 eastern standard time, American Airlines flight 1531, an Airbus 319, N9011P, collided with American Airlines flight 1613, a Boeing 737-800, N344PP, on a taxiway at Miami International Airport (KMIA), Miami, Florida. There were no injuries to the occupants of either airplane and N344PP was substantially damaged. Both flights were scheduled passenger flights operating under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 121. N9011P originated from Toncontín International Airport (MHTG), Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and had 126 passengers and crew onboard. N344PP originated from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (TJSJ), San Juan, Puerto Rico, and had 168 passengers and crew onboard.
According to flight crew statements, N344PP had landed on runway 09 and was instructed to turn onto taxiway N5 from taxiway M. The captain set the parking brake as they waited for preceding traffic to clear.
N9011P was following N344PP along taxiway M and observed N344PP stop on the taxiway N5 with its tail partially blocking taxiway M. After several minutes of waiting, N9011P requested permission to taxi past N344PP, which was granted. As the Captain of N9011P slowly taxied, the first officer (FO) attempted to visually monitor clearance between their airplanes wingtip and N344PPs horizontal stabilizer. The FO stated that he was temporarily blinded by the glare from the ramp lights and the airplanes collided. N9011P received minor damage to its right wingtip and the lower spar of N344PP's horizontal stabilizer was fractured.
Probable cause
The failure of the flight crew of N9011P to maintain an appropriate clearance from N344PP, which was stopped on the taxiway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA18CA043
- Event ID
- 20171212X50255
- Case number
- DCA18CA043
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (5)
- 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. 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: ea0e61c8fee23975000e625e20c986fe7f4c98cfcdeb878006959fa4cd821cff; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:28:16.620Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. Departure label misspells Tegucigalpa; narrative gives Toncontín International Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.