United crew thought plane was cleared before hitting deicing trucks at Denver International Airport, NTSB says
The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary investigation findings into the United Airlines plane crash with two deicing trucks at Denver International Airport in March. United Airlines Flight 605 struck the trucks around 8:30 a.m. on March 6.
According to the NTSB preliminary investigation, the flight crew stated the captain was unsure if their flight received clearance while parked at deice pad C, spot C5, because they were "engaged in conversation." There was uncertainty regarding whether all deice vehicles were behind the clearance lines. The flight crew said they conducted post-deice checks and received clearance to taxi from air traffic control.
In the NTSB documents, that's when the flight crew began to taxi and felt the plane collide with "something." The flight crew stopped the aircraft and that's when they were informed they had not been cleared to exit the deice pad and that the plane had collided with two deice trucks.
In the NTSB documents, the Aeromag deice team said that UA Flight 605 was being sprayed with "type 4 fluid from four of their trucks" with MAG 94 and MAG 95 forward of the wing, and MAG 28 and MAG 30 were aft of the wings. The deice agents observed the airplane beginning to move forward, and no one was able to stop the airplane's movement. That's when the plane struck trucks MAG 94 (left wing) and MAG 95 (right wing) which pushed MAG 95 onto its side.
The flight, a Boeing 737-800 was set to depart from Denver to Nashville on the morning of March 6 when it was snowing. A total of 130 passengers and six crew members, including two pilots and four flight attendants, were on board. One deice agent suffered minor injuries during the collision.
The NTSB said that all qualified parties were asked to participate in the investigation, including the Federal Aviation Administration and United Airlines. The investigation into the collision continues.
