ANC04FA016 · Piper J3C-65
Piper J3C-65 and Turf Soaring School Schleicher ASK-21 · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC04FA016
- 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
- 4 · 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 · Piper J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N2094M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From P48 · Pleasant Valley, AZTo P48 · Peoria, AZ
- 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
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Schleicher ASK-21
- Aircraft type
- Schleicher ASK-21
- Category
- Glider
- 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
- N274KS
- Operator
- Turf Soaring School
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From P48 · Peoria, AZTo P48 · Peoria, AZ
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial certificated pilot of an aerobatic glider, with one passenger, was performing a series of aerobatic maneuvers within an aerobatic box, which was adjacent to runway 5L at an uncontrolled airport. The aerobatic box measured 1 kilometer square, and extended from the surface up to 6,600 feet msl (5000' agl). The southern boundary of the aerobatic box was located about 1,490 feet north of runway 5L's centerline. Concurrently, a Piper J3C airplane with the commercial pilot/flight instructor/airplane owner seated in the front seat, and a private pilot seated in the rear seat, departed runway 5L, and made a left downwind turn into the area where the glider was performing the aerobatic maneuvers. Witnesses said that as the glider reached the top of the loop, the nose lowered, eventually pointing straight down. As the glider began to recover from the maneuver, about 600 feet agl, the left wing of the oncoming Piper struck the tail of the glider between the empennage and the main fuselage, severing the empennage of the glider. Witnesses said that during the collision, a large portion of the left outboard wing of the Piper separated, and both the glider and the Piper entered uncontrolled descents. Both aircraft came to rest close to the center of the aerobatic box. According to the airport facilities directory, aircraft departing from runway 5L, are instructed to fly a right-hand traffic pattern. However, the airport's segmented circle depicts a left-hand departure from runway 5L. Radio equipped aircraft may utilize a common traffic advisory frequency of 122.9 Hz. Neither of the aircraft involved in the accident had a radio, nor were they required to. The front seat pilot of the Piper had based the accident airplane at the accident airport for several years, and was familiar with the procedures for operating at the airport.
Probable cause
The inadequate visual lookout by the pilots of both aircraft, which resulted in their failure to see-and-avoid each other's aircraft and a subsequent midair collision. A factor associated with the accident was the airplane pilot's failure to determine that the aerobatic box was in use by the glider prior to his entry into the aerobatic box.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC04FA016
- Event ID
- 20040108X00028
- Case number
- ANC04FA016
- 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, coordinates. 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: 903fc48364cf1cad5048c7f7cba8b0831a93f1b45c3b2f79e3a05adfe6d75053; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:40:38.679Z.