FTW85FA230 · Piper PA-28-140
Piper PA-28-140 and Bell UH-1V · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW85FA230
- 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-28-140
- 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
- N7053R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 7K1 · Herington, KSTo Manhattan Regional Airport (MHK), Manhattan, KS
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 · Bell UH-1V
- Aircraft type
- Bell UH-1
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- USA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Marshall Army Air Field (FRI), FT. RILEY, KSTo Philip Billard Municipal Airport (TOP), Topeka, KS
- 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
- Armed Forces
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, poor
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ARMY UH-1V AND N7053R, A PIPER PA-28, COLLIDED IN MID AIR AT 700 FEET AGL. BOTH ACFT WERE IN LVL FLT. UH-1V WAS OPERATING ON A MEDICAL EVACUATION FLT WITH A CREW OF FOUR, ONE PATIENT AND TWO ATTENDANTS. THE UH-1V EXECUTED A SUCCESSFUL AUTOROTATION WITH SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE AND NO INJURIES. THE PIPER CRASHED OUT OF CONTROL AFTER ITS RIGHT WING WAS CUT OFF BY THE HELICOPTER'S ROTOR BLADES. THE ARMY PILOTS REPORTED THAT WHEN THE PIPER WAS FIRST SIGHTED IT WAS 45 DEGREES TO THE RIGHT OF THEIR AIRCRAFT'S NOSE. THE HELICOPTER PILOT BEGAN A DIVING LEFT TURN BUT IT WAS TOO LATE. THE CO-PILOT STATED THAT THE PIPER EXECUTED AN EXTREMELY STEEP RIGHT TURN JUST BEFORE IMPACT. THE PILOT OF THE PIPER RECEIVED FATAL INJURIES. BOTH AIRCRAFT HAD THE FORWARD HALF OF THE ROTATING BEACONS COVERED. THE UH-1V WITH TAPE AND THE PIPER WITH BLACK PAINT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW85FA230
- Event ID
- 20001214X36453
- Case number
- FTW85FA230
- 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: 582abb9fa6b843fd595e2c367f155003df9f958eb031b7d725087ebcd5468056; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:01:01.016Z.