CHI05FA055 · Cessna T-37B
90th Flying Training Squadron, USAF Cessna T-37B and Air Tractor AT-502B · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05FA055
- 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
- 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 · Cessna T-37B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna T-37
- 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
- 66-8003
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wichita Falls Municipal Airport / Sheppard Air Force Base (SPS), Sheppard AFB, TXTo 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Air Tractor AT-502B
- Aircraft type
- Air Tractor AT-502
- 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
- N8526M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Olney Municipal Airport (ONY), Olney, TXTo Hutchinson Municipal Airport (HUT), Hutchinson, 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
Cause areas
- Pilots of both aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilots of both 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
A U.S. Air Force twin jet military trainer, a Cessna T-37B, and a single-engine agricultural aircraft, an Air Tractor AT-502B, were destroyed following a midair collision during cruise flight. The training jet was returning to its home military base after a training flight. The training jet had climbed VFR to 5,500 feet msl, and then was instructed to descend to 5,000 feet msl on a 100 degree magnetic heading. After about a minute or less of level flight at 5,000 feet msl, the T-37B impacted the agricultural aircraft which was flying on a heading of about 355 to 005 degrees magnetic. The radar approach control facility that was providing radar services to the T-37B did not have radar recording capability, therefore, no radar track data was available for analysis. Air traffic controllers who were working the T-37B reported seeing the T-37B at 5,000 feet on their radar displays prior to the mid-air collision. The air traffic controllers reported that they did not observe primary radar returns on the AT-502B. The AT-502B was a factory new aircraft that was being ferried to South Dakota. It was not equipped with radios or a transponder. The magnetic heading and altitudes flown by the AT-502B pilot are unknown due to the lack of radar data. The T-37B instructor pilot reported there was an overcast ceiling around 6,000 to 6,500 feet msl, and that the visibility at 5,500 feet msl was about 3 miles due to haze. The VFR cruising altitudes, as prescribed in FAR 91.159, for level cruising flight for 3,000 feet above the surface and below 18,000 feet MSL are as follows: "(1) On a magnetic course of zero degrees through 179 degrees, any odd thousand foot MSL altitude +500 feet (such as 3,500, 5,500, or 7,500); or (2) On a magnetic course of 180 degrees through 359 degrees, any even thousand foot MSL altitude +500 feet (such as 4,500, 6,500, or 8,500)." The airspace at the accident location is designated as Class E airspace. Class E airspace is defined by the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) as: "generally, if the airspace is not Class A, Class B, Class D, and it is controlled airspace, it is Class E airspace." No specific pilot certification or specific aircraft equipment is required to fly in Class E airspace. No separation services are provided to VFR aircraft operating in Class E airspace.
Probable cause
The pilots of the T-37B and AT-502B the failed to maintain adequate visual lookout and did not maintain clearance from the other aircraft. Contributing factors included the lack of a transponder and radios on the AT-502B and the reduced visibility due to haze.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05FA055
- Event ID
- 20050126X00109
- Case number
- CHI05FA055
- 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: 997dcc6d5151c8313aa3b1e0ee4025623718733e41dadaac02af860046c8bce3; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:08:24.033Z.