FTW02LA047 · Curtiss-Wright SB2C-5
Confederate Air Force Curtiss-Wright SB2C-5 and Cessna 152 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA047
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 · Curtiss-Wright SB2C-5
- Aircraft type
- Curtiss Wright SB2
- 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
- N92879
- Operator
- Confederate Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakefront Airport (NEW), New Orleans, LATo New Orleans, LA
- 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 · from runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N48727
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lakefront Airport (NEW), New Orleans, LATo New Orleans, LA
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- 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 separation, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual separation, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The student pilot landed the Cessna (N48727) on runway 36R. She was advised by the local controller to exit the runway with a right turn at the next taxiway, which was taxiway Juliet, and to "keep taxiing, come up on ground." However, she stopped the airplane just past the hold short line on taxiway Juliet to perform her after landing checklist. After completing the checklist, she switched frequencies to ground control, but had not yet called the ground controller when her airplane's tail section was struck by the Helldiver's (N92879) propeller. The Helldiver was the first of three vintage aircraft to land on runway 36L and was held short of runway 36R on taxiway Juliet, due to the Cessna landing on 36R. According to the Helldiver pilot, "several minutes" after the Cessna had cleared runway 36R, he was cleared by ground control to taxi, via taxiway Juliet and Charlie, to parking. The Helldiver crossed runway 36R, and the Helldiver's propeller impacted the right elevator, right horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, and the rudder of the stopped Cessna. The pilot of the Helldiver reported that he did not perform S-turns during the taxi, since the "taxiways are too narrow." Review of audio tapes revealed that there was a duty transfer between two ground controllers after the Cessna and Helldiver landed, but prior to the Helldiver receiving taxi instructions. The review also indicated that neither the local controller, nor either ground controller, attempted to contact the Cessna after the local controller issued the initial taxi instruction.
Probable cause
the Helldiver pilot's failure to maintain visual separation with the Cessna while taxiing. Contributing factors were the Cessna pilot's failure to comply with the local controller's instructions to continue taxiing and the failure of the local and ground controllers to monitor the position of the Cessna.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA047
- Event ID
- 20011219X02420
- Case number
- FTW02LA047
- 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: 46e6b40a5ff10946391cc58774f606fcdda4c64de87b40154fd7dce97808d458; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:17:00.699Z.