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Atlas / NTSB / NYC92FA009

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event NYC92FA009

1991-10-16 NEWARK, New Jersey, United States Airport · EWR Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE CREW OF THE B-737, N7385F, TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT WHILE TAXIING, AND FAILURE BY AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS TO PROVIDE TRAFFIC INFORMATION AND/OR ISSUE WARNINGS TO EITHER FLIGHTCREW. A FACTOR WAS THE AFTER-LANDING TASK SATURATION OF BOTH FLIGHTCREWS.

Factual narrative

BOTH AIRPLANES LANDED IN SEQUENCE ON RUNWAY 4R, AND WERE PROCEEDING TO THEIR RESPECTIVE GATES. THE AMERICAN MD-80 LANDED FIRST. THE CONTINENTAL BOEING 737 WAS TOLD TO CROSS RUNWAY 4L AND CONTACT GROUND AFTER CROSSING. THE COLLISION OCCCURRED AT THE INTERSECTION OF TAXIWAYS 'R' AND 'K'. BOTH FLIGHT CREWS WERE OCCUPIED WITH COCKPIT DUTIES AND DID NOT SEE EACH OTHER PRIOR TO THE COLLISION. NEITHER CREW RECEIVED TRAFFIC INFORMATION OR A WARNING FROM ATC PRIOR TO THE IMPACT. THE ATC SPECIALISTS IN THE TOWER WERE DISTRACTED BY A MAINTENANCE AIRPLANE TAXING NEAR RUNWAY 11. THE LOCAL AND GROUND CONTROLLERS SAID THEY THOUGHT THE AIRPLANES WOULD NOT COLLIDE, SO THEY DID NOT ISSUE A WARNING OR TRAFFIC INFORMATION. THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED ON A CLEAR NIGHT AND WEATHER WAS NOT A FACTOR. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_NYC92FA009.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗