CHI07FA140 · Cessna 172N
Cessna 172N and Beech V35B · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07FA140
- 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
- 3 · 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 172N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N6614D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ISZ · Blue Ash, OHTo 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
- En route · climb to 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 · Beech V35B
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N1835L
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ISZ · Blue Ash, OHTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
Two airplanes, a high-wing Cessna, and a low-wing Beech, collided in midair, about two miles north of a non-tower controlled general aviation airport. Both airplanes had departed the same airport about 8 minutes apart. Radar data from a nearby air traffic control approach facility disclosed that the first to depart was the Beech, and the pilot requested VFR flight following from air traffic control. Due to workload, the air traffic control specialist declined to provide the service. Radar derived information indicated that the Beech was maneuvering north of the airport at altitudes between 2,600 and 2,900 feet msl, and then began a descent and a return to the airport. The Cessna began his departure and climb as the Beech approached the airport. A witness related that he saw both airplanes approaching each other, about ½ mile apart, on an apparent collision course, but not directly head-on. He watched as both airplanes closed their relative distance, and saw both airplanes roll towards each other, clipping each other's wing. Both airplanes immediately descended to impact. Postaccident inspection disclosed no preaccident mechanical issues with either airplane. The sky was clear, and both pilot's had been communicating on the local airport Unicom (voluntary traffic advisory) frequency. Federal aviation regulations state that each pilot has the responsibility to see and avoid each other.
Probable cause
The inadequate visual lookout of the pilots in both airplanes, and their failure to maintain clearance from each other's airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07FA140
- Event ID
- 20070518X00587
- Case number
- CHI07FA140
- 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: 60425cf507b2f06ec8ba60d1b4e1b2a00c5b66decc13c8078543dd327bb8bda4; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:39:08.227Z.