SEA99LA129 · Vanek SPORT COPTER SPORT COPT
Vanek SPORT COPTER SPORT COPT and Unknown · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA129
- 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 · Vanek SPORT COPTER SPORT COPT
- Aircraft type
- Vanek SPORT COPTER
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N61887
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seiling Airport (1S4)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
- Approach
- 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 · Unknown
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seiling Airport (1S4)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 103: Ultralight
- 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 · climb to 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, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness observed the gyroplane on final approach to land on the taxiway. When the gyroplane was about 200-250 feet high on final, the witness saw a high-wing ultralight vehicle climb into view, after takeoff from the taxiway. The ultralight's climb was described as very steep. The witness stated that 'the ultralight impacted the gyroplane, very hard, at the aft end striking the rudder with the ultralight[']s propeller. I could see many pieces of debris in the air at the point of impact. Both aircraft were stopped in the mid-air. The ultralight raised up into the rotor system of the gyroplane coming in contact with the rotor blade. This impact threw the ultralight off to the right, and then it came in, nose down, landing on the right side of the taxi way. The gyroplane after being hit from behind, stopped in mid-air. The rotor blade, after being hit by the ultralight, lost 7 ft. on one side (of a 29 foot blade) rendering the rotor system completely ineffective. The gyroplane then spun slowly on its side, in the air, approximately 200 ft. above ground.'
Probable cause
The failure of the ultralight operator to see and avoid the landing gyroplane, and the gyroplane pilot's inability to see the departing ultralight vehicle.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA129
- Event ID
- 20001212X19383
- Case number
- SEA99LA129
- 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: c4cd4bdcc1ab865658a1f2fed9021865677667a25dbdf19b6889cd6a1a588b6e; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:56:52.187Z.