Stay Seated Until The Airplane Stops.

A hydraulics system failure may have led to a ground collision between two Northwest Airlines Jets near the gate at MSP Tuesday night at 1945 CDT. A DC-9 apparently lost its steering or braking capability as the plane taxied to the terminal building. It impacted the right wing of a much bigger Airbus 319 after running under the tail.

Four crewmembers on the DC-9 were injured, including the captain and first officer. Two ground workers were also injured in the incident. A section of the DC-9 roof peeled back and the Airbus wing was damaged, spilling a puddle of jet fuel a few hundred feet wide. Passengers were evacuated from both planes.

The NTSB sent an investigator from Chicago up to investigate the scene. "We're waiting for his report back to us.... We may be sending some other investigators out there depending on what he tells us, and we'll be bringing the recorders from both airplanes back here for readout,'' said Paul Schlamm, an agency spokesman in Washington, to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

The planes were separated and towed to hangars around 0130 according to media reports.

"Once we got close to the terminal, everyone was just kind of waiting to pop the belt and start getting off the plane,'' Toray Henry, a DC-9 passenger from Columbus, told KSTP-TV. "It seemed like it kind of surged into the other plane. We knew that it hit another plane, and that's why I think most of us were concerned about an explosion.''

FAA Preliminary Accident Report

IDENTIFICATION
  Regis#: NWA1849        Make/Model: A319      Description: A-319
  Date: 05/11/2005     Time: 0035

  Event Type: Accident   Highest Injury: None     Mid Air: N    Missing: N
  Damage: Unknown

LOCATION
  City: MINNEAPOLIS   State: MN   Country: US

DESCRIPTION
  NORTHWEST AIRLINES, NWA1849, AN AIRBUS 319 ACFT, WAS STRUCK IN THE REAR
  SECTION OF THE ACFT BY ANOTHER ACFT, NWA 1495, INJURIES ARE UNKNOWN, DAMAGE
  UNKNOWN, MINNEAPOLIS, MN

INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0
                 # Crew:   0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   Y
                 # Pass:    0     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   Y
                 # Grnd:           Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0     Unk:   

WEATHER: 23010KT 10SM -RA BKN039 BKN050 0VC110 16/13 A2991

OTHER DATA
  Activity: Business      Phase: Standing      Operation: Air Carrier

  Departed:                             Dep Date:    Dep. Time:     
  Destination:                          Flt Plan:              Wx Briefing: 
  Last Radio Cont: 
  Last Clearance: 

  FAA FSDO: MINNEAPOLIS, MN  (GL15)               Entry date: 05/11/2005

FMI: www.ntsb.gov