NYC05FA117 · Carlstrom Long EZ
Carlstrom Long EZ and Morgan RV-8 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC05FA117
- 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
- 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 · Carlstrom Long EZ
- Aircraft type
- Carlstrom LONG EZ
- 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
- N78LC
- Operator
- Jay Blum
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Delaware Coastal Airport (GED), Georgetown, DETo Delaware Coastal Airport (GED)
- 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
Aircraft 2 · Morgan RV-8
- Aircraft type
- Morgan RV-8
- 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
- N899RM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Delaware Coastal Airport (GED), Georgetown, DETo Delaware Coastal Airport (GED)
- 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 of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident airplanes were part of a group of six experimental airplanes practicing a formation flight routine for an upcoming airshow. The airplanes had just completed a "six ship opposing" maneuver, in which the airplanes flew towards each other in two groups of three airplanes. The group containing the accident airplanes was assembled with a lead airplane in front (the RV-8 airplane) and two additional airplanes aligned behind and to each side of the lead (in a "triangle" formation). The Long EZ was the airplane behind and to the right of the RV-8. The "six ship opposing" maneuver was performed without any abnormality, and approximately 3 seconds later, the Long EZ and lead RV-8 collided. Both aircraft subsequently impacted the water beneath them. Examination of several videotapes and a digital photograph revealed that the Long EZ airplane was above the RV-8 and out of position in the moments prior to the collision. No pre-impact mechanical deficiencies were noted with either airplane.
Probable cause
The Long EZ pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the RV-8 airplane, which resulted in a mid-air collision during a formation flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC05FA117
- Event ID
- 20050726X01098
- Case number
- NYC05FA117
- 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: 4bebe1c208d7dbd353b6dd944648cd47592b82254a9417b4680a2035acbf01df; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:58:44.668Z.