NYC97LA003 · North American T-6G
North American T-6G and Cessna 152 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC97LA003
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · North American T-6G
- Aircraft type
- North American T-6
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N5115D
- Operator
- Richard Zisa
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1B9To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Taxi · from runway
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N25589
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 1B9To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Mansfield, MA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of a North American T-6G completed a demonstration flight, returned to his departure airport, and entered the traffic pattern to land on runway 22, a grass strip. During the turn to final approach, the pilot observed a Cessna 152 taxing northwest on the hard surface taxiway for runway 14. According to the T-6 pilot, 'After touchdown and retracting my flaps, I realized that the Cessna was not going to be stopping before crossing my runway...At this point, he was disappearing in the huge blind spot in front of my nose. I began to turn to the left in an attempt to pass behind the Cessna. At this time he must have stopped as I didn't see him to my right. I began to turn much harder to the left when I struck his left wing with my prop...and pushing him back about 75 feet...' According to the Cessna pilot, '...The airplane I was watching land on runway 14 suddenly added power and did a go around. Then I saw out of the corner of my eye a yellow T-6 off the right and in front of me. The T-6 was landing on runway 22. I stopped short of where the runway crosses the taxiway. The T-6 then started turning to the left. He turned sharply and struck the Cessna I was operating.' Examination of the airplanes revealed that the Cessna had stopped about 65 feet short of the runway intersection, and had been struck by the T-6 outside the boundaries of runway 22.
Probable cause
failure of the T-6 pilot to maintain clearance from the Cessna 152, as he turned off the runway after landing. A factor relating to the accident was: the T-6 pilot's restricted view of the Cessna 152 (lack of visual detection), due to a blind spot beyond the nose of his airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC97LA003
- Event ID
- 20001208X06960
- Case number
- NYC97LA003
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f9915267aea1f19a2b669657950579a7f5decc5bf26bd1637fe12ca3fec884a6; retrieved 2026-09-22T20:59:40.943Z.