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O'Hare Airport incident

1 Apr 1999 · Runway of O'Hare Airport, Chicago (Illinois, USA)

Korean Air Boeing 747-400 and Air China Cargo Boeing 747 · Air traffic controller errors

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Event

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
Event fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
379
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
0
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

Aircraft 1 · Boeing 747-400

Flight
KE036
Aircraft type
Boeing 747
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
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
HL7493
Operator
Korean Air
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From O'Hare, Chicago (Illinois, USA)To Gimpo, Seoul (Republic of Korea)

Aircraft 2 · Boeing 747

Flight
CA9018
Aircraft type
Boeing 747
Category
Airplane · from aircraft type
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
B-2446
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Not stated
Survivors
8
InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
Not stated
Route
From John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York (USA)To O'Hare, Chicago (Illinois, USA)

Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.

From the Wikipedia article

The O'Hare Airport incident was an aviation incident that occurred on Thursday, 1 April 1999 at O'Hare Airport (Chicago, USA). A Korean Air Boeing 747-4B5 airliner was operating flight KE036 on the Chicago — Seoul route and was accelerating along runway No. 14R of O'Hare Airport, but suddenly an Air China Cargo Boeing 747-2J6BSF cargo aircraft, which had completed its flight (CA9018 New York — Chicago) and was turning onto a taxiway, appeared in front of it on the same runway. The pilots of the Korean “Boeing” pulled back on the control columns. As a result they were able to get the aircraft into the air and flew just a few metres above the Chinese “Boeing”. None of the 387 people on board the two aircraft (379 on the Korean Air “Boeing” and 8 on the Air China Cargo “Boeing”) were injured.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Russian Wikipedia article “Инцидент в аэропорту О’Хара” (revision 152126701, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

Sources

Russian Wikipedia article: Инцидент в аэропорту О’Хара
Article
Инцидент в аэропорту О’Хара
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
152126701 · 2026-03-09 · retrieved 2026-09-19
Wikidata
Q109457975
Licence
Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
Record
ru Wikipedia article "Инцидент в аэропорту О’Хара" (page 6460654, revision 152126701), translated into English with AI assistance
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
Wikipedia article coordinates
Aircraft, operator and route
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
Operation
airline flight number in the infobox
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Russian Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.