CHI85FA050 · North American P-51D
North American P-51D · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Oakland County International Airport (PTK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI85FA050
- 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
- 2 · 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
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
- N51JL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oakland County International Airport (PTK), Pontiac, MITo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, static
- 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 › Descent, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Low pass, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT, A NORTH AMERICAN P51D, CRASHED INTO A POTATO FIELD AFTER STRIKING AN ELECTRICAL WIRE RUNNING AT A RT ANGLE TO THE GROUND TRACK, STRUCK THE GROUND, A BUILDING & DISINTEGRATED. THE PLT & OWNER OF THE ACFT WAS A 50 YR OLD EX-NAVAL AVIATOR WITH CONSIDERABLE EXPERIENCE IN HIGH PERFORMANCE HEAVY ACFT. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PLT WAS PROPERLY CERTIFICATED & THE ACFT WAS PROPERLY CERTIFIED. AN AUTOPSY PERFORMED ON THE PLT, WHO WAS ALSO A PRACTICING PHYSICIAN, REVEALED ADVANCED ARTERIOSCLEROTIC HEART DISEASE & A HISTORY OF TREATMENT FOR HIGH BLOOD PREESURE. LASTLY, DURING THE PERIOD PRECEEDING THE ACCIDENT, THE PLT WAS EXPERIENCING STRESS FROM THE DEATH OF A GOOD FRIEND IN ANOTHER ACFT ACCIDENT & A RECENT ILLNESS OF HIS OWN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI85FA050
- Event ID
- 20001214X41521
- Case number
- CHI85FA050
- 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: 53021dead4411bced6130a732850e48c1a0a1a899edec6cb2527f3e7d3b152d1; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:14:56.485Z.