LAX00LA011 · Waco UPF7
Waco UPF7 and Cessna 195 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA011
- 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 · Waco UPF7
- Aircraft type
- Waco UPF7
- 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
- N32186
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From OL7To 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
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 195
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 195
- 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
- N4301V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From OL7To 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
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
The Waco UPF7 taxied into a stationary Cessna 195 on a taxiway leading to the active runway. The airport manager reported that the Cessna 195 was in line behind other aircraft on a taxiway awaiting departure on runway 2L. The Waco UPF7 was proceeding along the taxiway to runway 2L for takeoff. The airport manager said the taxiway is too narrow for the conventional geared Waco to effectively S-turn. The pilot of the Waco said that as he was taxiing he spotted some rocks on runway 2L and was engaged in a radio conversation with the ground controller reporting debris on the runway. He noted that this distracted his attention and he did not see the stopped Cessna 195 ahead on the taxiway and taxied into the left wing of that aircraft.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate visual lookout while taxiing for departure. Factors in the accident were: the narrow nature of the taxiway and the pilot's subsequent inability to S-turn for better forward visibility, and, the pilot allowing himself to become distracted with minor cockpit duties while moving on the ground.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA011
- Event ID
- 20001212X19986
- Case number
- LAX00LA011
- 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: a64eebb37e8d6717c3e4d1627376540f964272246f937e3de5a7548e6a221d01; retrieved 2026-09-22T13:52:51.264Z.