SEA88FA060 · Pitts S-1C
Pitts S-1C and Kitchen NEIUPORT 24 BIS NEIUPORT 2 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA88FA060
- 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 · Pitts S-1C
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S-1
- 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
- N6389
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4SD · Reno, NVTo O04 · Carson City, NV
- 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
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Kitchen NEIUPORT 24 BIS NEIUPORT 2
- Aircraft type
- Kitchen NEIUPORT 24
- 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
- N3545
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From O04 · Carson City, NVTo 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
- 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
UPON ARRIVAL AT THE CARSON ARPT, N6389 (PITTS S-1C) CIRCLED OVERHEAD & THEN DESCENDED TO TRAFFIC PATTERN ALTITUDE WHILE ON THE DOWNWIND LEG TO RUNWAY 27. THE PILOT BROADCAST VIA VHF HIS LOCATION AND INTENTION ON BASE AND FINAL. WHILE ESTABLISHED ON FINAL AND APPROXIMATELY 1000 FEET FROM THE THRESHOLD TO RUNWAY 27, AND AT AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 200 FEET AGL, N6389 COLLIDED WITH N3545 (NIEUPORT). IMPACT MARKS INDICATED THAT N6389 STRUCK THE UPPER LEFT WING OF N3545 WITH ITS WHEELS. THE LOWER RIGHT WING OF N6389 THEN DISINTEGRATED AS IT PASSED THROUGH THE PROPELLER ARC OF N3545. NEITHER PILOT REPORTED SEEING THE OTHER AIRCRAFT AND BOTH AIRCRAFT CRASHED SHORT OF THE RUNWAY. NEITHER AIRCRAFT WAS EQUIPPED WITH ANY POSITION, ANTICOLLISION OR STROBE LIGHTS. ALTHOUGH BOTH AIRCRAFT WERE BIPLANES (EQUIPPED WITH UPPER AND LOWER WINGS) IT COULD NOT BE DETERMINED WHETHER THIS DESIGN HAD ANY BEARING IN OBSTRUCTING EITHER PILOT'S VIEW OF THE OTHER AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA88FA060
- Event ID
- 20001213X25346
- Case number
- SEA88FA060
- 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: 062ec6cf9cee9550040b1fb318b6e5f5b62b0b832fdda4bdfc695c7a0ff2d3e5; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:12:48.539Z.