FTW98LA004 · North American HARVARD MK IV HARVARD MK
Confederate Air Force North American HARVARD MK IV HARVARD MK and Confederate Air Force North American SNJ-5 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA004
- 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 HARVARD MK IV HARVARD MK
- Aircraft type
- North American HARVARD MK
- 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
- N13595
- Operator
- Confederate Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF)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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 · North American SNJ-5
- Aircraft type
- North American SNJ-5
- 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
- N3195G
- Operator
- Confederate Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Midland International Air and Space Port (MAF)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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 Midland, TX, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
During the landing roll of a formation flight of four North American T-6 airplanes, the lead aircraft, N13595, intended to clear the runway to the left at taxiway Mike instead of at the end of the runway. The pilot of the lead aircraft reported that he looked back to the left to check for the location of the #2 aircraft, N3195G. 'Number-two appeared to be one hundred and fifty yards back and slowing (it appeared number-two's tail was down in three point attitude).' As he proceeded to turn left to exit the runway, he looked back again and 'saw number-two was too close and coming fast.' He applied full power and made a right turn to the right side of the runway. The pilot of the #2 aircraft, reported that when the lead aircraft disappeared from his view, he 'went hard on the brakes' and headed towards the left edge of the runway. The right wing of aircraft #2 struck the vertical stabilizer of the lead aircraft. According to the Confederate Air Force, they teach in their Formation Flight Safety Seminars that during formation/staggered landings, the formation is to exit at the end of the runway. They also teach that there will be no passing of aircraft during the landing.
Probable cause
the failure of the pilots of both airplanes to maintain clearance from each other. A factor was their failure to follow procedures/directives.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA004
- Event ID
- 20001208X09001
- Case number
- FTW98LA004
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1997-10-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 67511849f81379bd6bddf57392e90d4b4ac44b062882a0a534f898b6b12dd9a7; retrieved 2026-09-22T18:26:12.526Z.