FTW98LA317 · Cessna 152
Menagerie Enterprises Cessna 152 and Aviat PITTS S-2B · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98LA317
- 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 · 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
- N47354
- Operator
- Menagerie Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS)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
- Taxi · to 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 · Aviat PITTS S-2B
- Aircraft type
- Aviat PITTS S-2B
- 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
- N812BL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bud Dryden Airport (TX05), McKinney, TXTo Addison Airport (ADS)
- 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
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Cessna 152 collided with a Pitts S-2B while both airplanes were taxiing in daylight VFR weather conditions at a controlled airport. The collision occurred in an area that was not visible from the control tower. After landing, the Pitts was cleared to taxi to parking via taxiway U. The pilot of the Pitts observed the Cessna standing with its engine running on the ramp adjacent to the taxiway and heard the controller issue the Cessna a clearance to taxi for takeoff. According to the Pitts pilot, the Cessna did not move, and he assumed it was giving way and continued to taxi. The pilot of the Cessna reported that after receiving clearance to taxi for takeoff, he entered taxiway U and then observed the Pitts coming towards his airplane. Witnesses observed the two airplanes taxiing toward one another and reported that the Cessna pulled off the right side of the taxiway into the grass to avoid the collision; however, the left wing of the Pitts struck the left wing of the Cessna. The witnesses did not observe any attempt by the Pitts to avoid the collision.
Probable cause
The inadequate visual lookout by the pilots of both airplanes.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98LA317
- Event ID
- 20001211X10328
- Case number
- FTW98LA317
- 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: 8120c3cbcce113b70b1d3043f87520f100a033f736f309c51d3962f09a174210; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:42:20.650Z.