CHI87FA004 · Piper PA-28-161
Avistar Air Center Piper PA-28-161 and Piper PA-28-181 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI87FA004
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N8267W
- Operator
- Avistar Air Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From University of Illinois Willard Airport (CMI), Champaign, ILTo Coles County Memorial Airport (MTO), Mattoon, IL
- 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 · IFR final 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-28-181
- 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
- N30019
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tuscola Airport (K96), Tuscola, ILTo Coles County Memorial Airport (MTO), Mattoon, IL
- 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 turn to base
- 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
- Dual student › Traffic advisory, issued
- Landing gear, main gear › Lack of
- Pilot in command › Traffic advisory, not performed
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, not maintained
- Wing › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
N8267W WAS ON PRACTICE NDB APPROACH TO RWY 29 UNDER ATC CLRNC WITH HOODED STU AT CONTROLS IN LEFT SEAT, IP IN RIGHT SEAT, PROCEEDING LEVEL AT MDA FOR LOW PASS. EVIDENCE INDICATES N30019 HAD ENTERED DOWNWIND FOR RWY 24 AND WAS IN LEFT TURN VFR APPROACH FOR RWY 24 AT COLLISION. CREW OF N8267W HAD BROADCAST 'IN THE BLIND' POSITION AND INTENTIONS ON UNICOM FREQ. PLT OF N30019 HAD RECEIVED UNICOM ADVISORY OF RWY 24 IN USE, BUT DID NOT BROADCAST POSITION OR INTENTIONS. IP IN N8267W DID NOT SEE N30019 UNTIL AFTER COLLISION. EVIDENCE INDICATES N30019 PASSED BENEATH N8267W IN LEFT TURN, STRIKING UNDERSIDE OF N8267W RIGHT WING/LANDING GEAR WITH OWN RIGHT WING OUTER PANEL. CLOSING ANGLE ESTIMATED FROM WITNESS STATEMENTS WAS 130 DEGREES. COLLISION ANGLE CALCULATED FROM IMPACT SCRATCH MARKS WAS 92 DEGREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI87FA004
- Event ID
- 20001213X34928
- Case number
- CHI87FA004
- 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: ab37c03541a5fa4145453c39d027822588bc24cccd4681d063cf4dba11c745b4; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:22:15.333Z.