FTW98FA063 · Pitts S-2B
Pitts S-2B and Cessna P206A · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98FA063
- 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
- 3 · 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 · Pitts S-2B
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S-2
- 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
- N693SB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN)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 · Cessna P206A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 206
- 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
- N2664X
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bert Mooney Airport (BTM), Whitehall, MTTo Red Lodge Airport (RED), Red Lodge, MT
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness observed an aircraft performing aerobatics near Montana State University campus. Another witness reported seeing a Pitts 'tipping its wings (straight on its side) one way, then the other.' This same witness observed the Pitts continue north 'doing tricks, when it suddenly went straight down.' A Cessna was flying by Gallatin Field (Bozeman, MT) on an airway, and reported that he was 7,700 feet mean sea level (msl) and climbing. A witness observed the Cessna flying eastbound and the Pitts closing about a 45 degree angle on the starboard forward quarter. The witness watched both planes for about 5 seconds, until impact 'both planes maintained level flight and neither made any turns or abrupt maneuvers.' Victor airways are low route area navigation tracks which extend upward from 1,200 feet above the surface of the earth to, but not including, 18,000 feet msl. They extend horizontally 4 nautical miles on each side of the airways center line. Aerobatic maneuvers are prohibited over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement and within 4 nautical miles of the center line of any Federal airway.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilots to maintain visual lookout. Factors were the pilot of N693SB not following procedures and directives, and using poor judgment in regards to where he performed aerobatics.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98FA063
- Event ID
- 20001208X09299
- Case number
- FTW98FA063
- 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: 6aa82c407695ac69e23714e811e093672596110449c07084fea6ee6d48369dc6; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:44:15.770Z.