CHI88LA021 · Piper PA-28-161
Piper PA-28-161 and North American P-51D · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while standing
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88LA021
- 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 · Piper PA-28-161
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N8253E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET)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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 · North American P-51D
- Aircraft type
- North American P-51
- 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
- N6341T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET)To Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET)
- 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
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
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 PLT OF NORTH AMERICAN P-51D, N6341T, WAS SOUTHBOUND ON TWY ALPHA AS THE PLT OF PIPER PA-28 CHEROKEE, N8253E, TAXIED FROM THE RUN-UP AREA TO THE HOLD LINE FOR RWY 33, WHICH WAS NEAR THE INTXN OF TWYS ALPHA & INDIA. THE PLT OF THE TAIL- WHEEL EQUIPPED P-51 WAS S-TURNING AS HE TAXIED TO CLEAR THE AREA AHEAD. HOWEVER, WHILE CROSSING THE INTXN OF TWYS ALPHA & INDIA IN A LEFT S-TURN, HIS RGT WING STRUCK THE EMPENNAGE OF THE PA-28. THE PA-28 WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DMGD WHILE THE P-51 RCVD MINOR DAMAGE. THE PA-28 PLT SAID HE HAD CONTACTED GND CTL BEFORE TAXIING FROM THE RUN-UP AREA TO THE HOLD LINE, THEN HAD CHANGED TO TOWER FREQ. HOWEVER, HE HAD DELAYED CONTACTING THE TOWER DUE TO RADIO CONGESTION ON THAT FREQ.THE P-51 PLT STATED THAT FROM A DISTANCE, HE SAW ANOTHER ACFT MOVING WEST ACROSS HIS PATH, BUT HE DID NOT RECEIVE AN ADZY OF THE CLOSE PROXIMITY OF THE PA-28. A CHECK OF THE TOWER TAPE REVEALED THE GND CTLR HAD TRANSMITTED TO THE P-51 PLT 'CAUTION FOR CHEROKEE AHEAD AND TO YOUR RIGHT.'
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88LA021
- Event ID
- 20001213X32495
- Case number
- CHI88LA021
- 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: 643154e1aba85137c22c52c8c7214e5d806fd6fd9cdeed8376df9c504daee780; retrieved 2026-09-23T11:38:59.484Z.