IAD00LA027 · Bellanca 8KCAB
Bellanca 8KCAB and Piper PA-25 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD00LA027
- 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 · Bellanca 8KCAB
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 8
- 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
- N2520Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Sant Airport (9N1)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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-25
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-25
- 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
- N7460Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Van Sant Airport (9N1)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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Dual student › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Traffic pattern procedure › Improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor and private pilot flew the Bellanca airplane in the traffic pattern for several minutes, and were on the fourth approach to the runway at the time of the accident. The private pilot said they flew a 'squared off traffic pattern' and were approximately 50 feet above ground level (agl) on final approach when the other airplane's shadow passed over. The pilot of the Piper said he entered the traffic pattern on the downwind leg, but flew a modified base leg to final for noise abatement. Witnesses described the Bellanca above and behind the Piper after both airplanes turned final. They said the Bellanca overtook the Piper as it descended below the Piper in a slip. Three witnesses said the Bellanca slowed, pitched up, and was struck from behind by the Piper. One witness said the Bellanca's approach was on the runway heading, while the Piper's approach was '...tracking inbound left of the centerline on a slight angle.' The crew turned off the Bellanca's radios after engine start, and the Piper was not equipped with a communication radio. There was no locally published procedure for flight in and around the traffic pattern nor were there any depicted 'no fly' areas for purposes of noise abatement. According to the Aeronautical Information Manual: 'When two or more aircraft are approaching an airport for the purpose of landing, the aircraft at the lower altitude has the right of way, but it shall not take advantage of this rule to cut in front of another which is on final approach to land, or to overtake that aircraft.' Each pilot reported there were no mechanical deficiencies with their respective airplanes.
Probable cause
the improper entry into the traffic pattern by the pilot of the Piper airplane and the inadequate lookout by the pilots in both airplanes. A factor in the accident was that radio communication was not possible because the Piper was not so equipped, and the Bellanca's radios were turned off.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD00LA027
- Event ID
- 20001212X20651
- Case number
- IAD00LA027
- 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: d812df415fed064e96aadc3d4be7e58b14382e25303e8da6851fc51fd9cb3a20; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:17:12.440Z.