LAX85FA239 · Earnst SKYBOLT
Earnst SKYBOLT and Patroline Cessna 150 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX85FA239
- 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 · Earnst SKYBOLT
- Aircraft type
- Earnst SKYBOLT
- 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
- N10DE
- Operator
- Dennis Earnst
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 downwind
- 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 · Cessna 150
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N3010V
- Operator
- Patroline
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From L5Z · OceanoTo 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 downwind
- 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 › Acft/equip inadequate, visual restriction
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, attempted
- Pilot in command › Visual/aural perception
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A CESSNA 150 AND A HOME BUILT SKYBOLT ACFT COLLIDED WHILE ON A DOWNWIND LEG OF A TRAFFIC PATTERN TO LAND. THE SKYBOLT WAS A COMPETITOR IN A LOCAL AEROBATIC COMPETITION EAST OF THE ARPT. THE C-150 WAS RETURNING FROM A STUDENT PLT TRAINING X-COUNTRY FLT. BOTH ACFT HAD RADIOS AND HAD ANNOUNCED THEIR POSITIONS IN TRAFFIC. BOTH WERE FLYING STRAIGHT & LEVEL AT APRX 1800 FT AGL WITH THE SKYBOLT SLIGHTLY HIGHER. THE ACFT CONVERGED SLOWLY AT ABOUT THE SAME AIRSPEED. AN OFFICIAL OF THE COMPETITION WARNED THE ACFT OF THEIR PROXIMITY. THE CESSNA PLT BOTH SAW & FELT HIS PROP CONTACT THE TAIL SECTION OF THE OTHER ACFT AS IT CAME FROM BEHIND AND ABOVE HIM. THE SKYBOLT PLT FELT THE IMPACT AND THEN SAW THE CESSNA BELOW HIM. BOTH ACFT WERE ABLE TO LAND BUT THE SKYBOLT GROUNDLOOPED AFTER LANDING DUE TO DAMAGE TO THE LANDING GEAR. THE COMPETITION CONTESTANTS AND NORMAL TRAFFIC WERE INTERMIXED IN TRAFFIC WITH NO ATTEMPT AT SEGREGATION BY DESIGNATION OF DEDICATED AREAS FOR EACH.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX85FA239
- Event ID
- 20001214X36486
- Case number
- LAX85FA239
- 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: 32c7cd268ca97bc9bc9f0f3d0dc39cdf9b8b5b37daa8b7476ab6f22180961fef; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:49:25.930Z.