There was light snow and congestion in the morning at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on February 5, 2025. Visibility was good, but temperatures were around freezing and the ramp was slippery with a mix of light snow and deicing fluid.
The 1921 Delta Airlines flight was a Boeing 737-832 registered in the United States as N3737C and bound for Puerto Vallarta. Once the six crew members and 144 passengers were on board, the flight crew prepared to begin their journey from gate A11. The frequency was very congested and they had to wait more than ten minutes before obtaining their return authorization. But just as they were finally cleared, the return authorization changed, causing further delays. Finally, they backed away and started a slow taxi. Their instructions were to taxi to point 88, turn left onto Whiskey Taxiway, and then stay close to point 99 to sequence to the south deicing apron. None of the flight crew members had deiced before in Seattle.
When they arrived at the de-icing area, the three de-icing points suitable for the Boeing 737 were occupied. The captain stopped the plane in front of point 1 on the south ramp, wanting a safe distance from the Airbus A220 that was ahead of them in the deicing queue. They put on the parking brake and left the engines running. No holding points were identified on the ramp or on the graphics.
Port of Seattle regulations stated that no aircraft should taxi in this area without ground support from a ground marshal and sufficient wing walkers.
A ground marshal is the person on the ramp who guides the aircraft with hand signals, supported by wing walkers who are positioned at each wing tip to monitor obstacles and ensure clearance. They are necessary support in busy airports with little free space.
There was no marshal in sight.
The captain was trapped. It was not safe to move the Boeing 737. They waited. The co-pilot controlled the de-icing frequency while both pilots scanned their surroundings in the congested ramp area.
Meanwhile, Japan Airlines 68, a Boeing 787-9 registered in Japan as JA868J, had just completed the long flight from Narita with 185 people on board. They landed on runway 16L and were attempting to taxi to gate S8, but had now been informed that gate S8 was occupied. The ramp controller’s instructions continued to change as the crew attempted to navigate the congested area of the terminal, stopping repeatedly to wait for traffic to clear. Initially, they were cleared to S8 via point 99. But as they approached, a member of the ground crew raised his arms and crossed them in an X-shaped signal, meaning they had to stop immediately. The flight crew stopped and informed the controller. The controller then diverted them to point 88. After waiting for a plane in front of them, they finally got clearance to continue onto taxiway B and point 99, essentially a U-turn back to the starting point.
As they reentered the ramp from point 99, heading toward gate S8, the JAL captain, who was the pilot on board, saw the Delta 737. It was right in their path.
The JAL flight crew stared. “It’s close,” the captain said loudly. The first officer agreed.
“I’ll move a little to the left,” said the JAL captain, who was the pilot at the controls. It moved slightly to the left of the center line and moved forward slowly at 2 knots (walking speed). He asked the co-pilot to check that the wing tip was clear. The first officer looked out of window number 2 and said, “It’s clear, but just barely.”
The captain heard “clear” and continued.
Meanwhile, on the parked Delta plane, the first officer suddenly saw the JAL 787 approaching, its wing worryingly close to the tail. He immediately alerted the captain, telling him that they should move forward and get out of the way.
But there was nowhere to go, no official to confirm they were clear, and de-icing trucks everywhere.
The first officer remembered it clearly.
“The captain looked forward and saw de-icing trucks entering and leaving the security area. Then he told me, ‘I can’t move forward.'”
“Seconds later, our plane was hit from behind by a Japan Airlines plane.
In the JAL cabin, the observer riding in the folding seat was also concerned about space. He thought the left wing of the B737 appeared to be close and moved to check the right window. That’s when the right wing tip of the JAL 787-9 collided with the tail of the parked Delta 737.
Meanwhile, in the Delta cabin, the captain was completely disoriented. “After the collision, I was in shock. I wasn’t sure what had happened. It could have been anything: an external explosion, as we were at an adjacent maintenance facility, a tire explosion, a catastrophic engine failure, anything.”
He never saw the Japan Airlines plane. “I remember looking carefully to see that both engines were running normally and that we had no warnings or precautions.”
The first officer called ramp control and said they needed fire crews on the deicing pad. Another plane on the frequency assured him that they could not see any fire.
They called the cabin again to confirm that everything was fine. The captain then gave a public speech. “[I] “He said he thought the plane had been in a collision with another plane and to remain seated with the seat belts fastened.”
Someone on the ground, a maintenance worker, was trying to get the captain’s attention. “With no radio contact, he was telling me to turn off the engines. I opened the side window and asked, why? He said there was a fuel leak from the wing of the plane that had hit us and that both planes were stuck on the tail.”
The JAL crew shut down both engines after receiving an engine stop signal from Delta ground crew. The first officer called JAL operations over the company radio. Both crews worked through their emergency checklists. Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) responded and confirmed that there was no fire, paying special attention to the fuel leak from the wing tip.
No one was hurt or injured. But the Delta plane had suffered significant damage throughout the tail section. The JAL plane was doing slightly better, with only minor damage to the wing tip.
@Delta @Japanairlines @fox13seattle @KIRO7Seattle Both planes crash into each other at SeaTac Airport now! What is happening with aviation? pic.twitter.com/R5Bh8UMtB7
— FelipeOFFICIAL (@FelipeLeos) February 5, 2025
He NTSBThe conclusion is simple:
Probable cause
The Japan Airlines flight crew did not maintain proper distance from the parked Delta Air Lines plane while taxiing through congested ramp conditions.
According to the videos and taking into account the perspective, the tail of the Delta 737 clearly protruded from the taxiway. However, since the Delta was parked and the JAL 787-9 was moving, the JAL aircraft must obviously be considered at fault.
But I have some sympathy for the JAL flight crew. They had been flying for nine hours just to get almost to their gate and back. The JAL captain remembered that they had passed through it without problems the first time and assumed there was enough room to pass again. Yes, they should have done the same thing as the Delta 737: stop the plane and wait for a marshal and wing walkers to help them navigate the congested area. But they must have felt the pressure to get to their door and finish.
Falsely reassured by what he thought was the first officer telling him that they were now far away from the 737, the captain continued forward, causing the accident. And that was the real mistake: you asked for an authorization check and heard the word “clear” in the response. Worse yet, the first officer was wrong.
The Delta 737 remained there, with its engines running, because the captain knew the conditions were not safe to sail alone. He was right. But there were no signs of any ground support arriving. Neither crew saw any signs of marshals or wingwalkers who might soon come to their aid.
Both crews handled the emergency professionally. No one was hurt, which is the most important thing. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that flight crews shouldn’t have been left to navigate a congested area alone, making clearance calls through the side windows at walking speed, hoping that would be enough.
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