1990 Wayne County Airport runway collision

The DC-9 operating Flight 1482, registered as N3313L, was built in 1966 and had a total of 62,253 operating hours. The plane was delivered new to Delta, which sold it to Southern Airways in 1973. It became part of Northwest's fleet after the 1986 acquisition of Southern's successor, Republic Airlines. It was declared a total loss and scrapped following this accident. The crew consisted of Captain William Lovelace (52), who had logged 23,000 flight hours with 4,000 hours in the DC-9, and First Officer James Schifferns (43), who had logged 4,685 flight hours with 185 hours in the DC-9. The Boeing 727 operating Flight 299 was registered N278US and had been delivered to Northwest in 1975. It had 37,310 operating hours. The aircraft was repaired and continued in service for Northwest until 1995. N278US was flown by Kitty Hawk Aircargo before being scrapped in 2011. The crew consisted of Captain Robert Ouellette (42), who had logged 10,400 flight hours with 5,400 hours on the 727, First Officer William Hagedorn (37), who had logged 5,400 flight hours with 2,350 hours on the 727, and Flight Engineer Darren Owen (31), who had logged 3,300 flight hours with 900 hours on the 727. ==Accident==

Northwest Airlines Flight 1482, a Douglas DC-9-14, was cleared from the gate toward Runway 03C, but it missed turning onto Taxiway Oscar6 and instead entered the outer taxiway. To correct the error, the crew was instructed to turn right onto Taxiway X-ray, but they instead turned onto the active runway, 03C. They realized the mistake and contacted air traffic control, which instructed them to leave the runway immediately. Five seconds later (at 13:45 EST), the crew saw the Boeing 727, Northwest Flight 299 to Memphis, heading toward them on its takeoff roll. The 727's wing cut through the right side of the DC-9's fuselage just below the windows, then continued aft, finally cutting off the DC-9's right side (#2) engine. The DC-9 caught fire and was destroyed. The captain of the DC-9 escaped from the aircraft through the left sliding window. Eighteen people escaped the plane from the left overwing exit, 13 people escaped through the left main boarding door and four people jumped from the right service door. The rear jumpseat flight attendant and a passenger died from smoke inhalation after being unable to release the tailcone emergency exit due to a mechanical fault. ==Investigation==

The accident was investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which determined the probable cause of the accident to be: ==In popular culture==

The accident is featured in the fourth episode of Season 20 of Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation. The episode is titled "Taxiway Turmoil". ==See also==