NYC97LA125 · Shafer SONERAI-I
Shafer SONERAI-I and Smith SONERAI-I · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC97LA125
- 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
- 1 · 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 · Shafer SONERAI-I
- Aircraft type
- Shafer SONERAI-I
- 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
- N20CS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Francis S Gabreski Airport (FOK)To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Smith SONERAI-I
- Aircraft type
- Smith SONERAI-I
- 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
- N77TY
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Francis S Gabreski Airport (FOK)To 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot in command › Visual separation, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Procedures/directives, not followed
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual separation, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Four homebuilt, low wing airplanes, were being used to participate in an air race, conducted by the Formula V Air Racing Association. After crossing the finish line, while banking left at the first set of pylons, the number two and number three airplanes collided. Race procedures were for the pilots to maintain power and airspeed, while climbing to enter a landing traffic pattern. According to the fourth place pilot, the number two airplane, a Smith Sonerai-I, N77TY, decelerated, pitched nose up, and collided with the number three airplane, a Shafer Sonerai-I, N20CS. During deceleration, the number two airplane was below number three, and it entered the 'blind area' of number three. The number three pilot did not maneuver to maintain visual contact with number two. The design of the FAA approved race course included a 500 foot safety zone between the flight path of the airplanes and the spectators. Wreckage of both airplanes came to rest outside the safety zone, where spectators could have positioned themselves.
Probable cause
failure of the number two pilot (N77TY) to follow race procedures, and failure of the number three pilot (N20CS) to turn and avoid the number two airplane, when it decelerated into the number three pilot's blind spot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC97LA125
- Event ID
- 20001208X08229
- Case number
- NYC97LA125
- 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: c074b31b4ce4856767c85e979995dd22b2b4d9acf7e518600a9aaced16e499a2; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:55:01.684Z.