[1]: 1 [6] This was the second major airliner accident to happen in Chicago in December 1972; the other was United Air Lines Flight 553, which crashed 12 days earlier on approach to Midway Airport.

Operating Convair CV-880 N8807E, it departed Tampa at 3:41 p.m. EST on December 20, 1972, and made a routine flight to Chicago, where it landed on Runway 14L at O'Hare International Airport at 5:55 or 5:56 p.m. CST.

It had already crossed the north–south bridge that carries the taxiway from Runway 14L to the terminal by the time the first officer contacted O'Hare ground control and reported that the aircraft was "inside [i.e., south of] the bridge", had not yet received a gate assignment, and needed to wait in a holding area until receiving an assignment.

The ground controller did not hear the words "inside the bridge," and, assuming Flight 954 had just left the end of Runway 14L and was still well north of the bridge, ambiguously instructed it to hold in the "thirty-two box", meaning in the controller's mind the 32R run-up pad at the southeast end of Runway 14L, where he assumed the plane to be.

[7] Assuming that they were cleared to taxi to the 32L pad, they proceeded toward it using the Bridge, Outer Circular, and North–South taxiways, via a route that intersected with Runway 27L.

Operating McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 N954N, the flight received clearance from O'Hare ground control at 5:50 p.m. CST to taxi to Runway 27L for departure.

[1]: 3, 8–9 The crew of Flight 954 apparently were unaware of the approaching DC-9 until hearing it strike their CV-880, and did not see the DC-9 until the first officer observed it crashing on the runway beyond them.

The first officer escaped through a cockpit window and assisted passengers out of the aircraft from outside the plane at the main entry door.

[1]: 11 Due to the foggy conditions and limited visibility at the airport, it took controllers nearly two minutes to determine that something had happened to North Central Flight 575.

It found that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the traffic control system to ensure adequate aircraft separation during a period of limited visibility.

It noted that non-standard terminology – used to expedite traffic flow – was common in communications between controllers and aircrews at O'Hare International Airport and included the omission of words, altered phraseology, and use of colloquialisms.

[1]: 13–16 The board also found that North Central's training program did not include any practice evacuations in simulated accident conditions, and that this lack of practical training on the part of the DC-9's crew meant that the evacuation of the aircraft took longer than it otherwise might have;[1]: 18–19  the Federal Aviation Administration required that North Central Airlines make improvements.