SEA07FA264 · Deluca-Owl OR-71
Deluca-Owl OR-71 and Tuttle Cassutt IIIM · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA07FA264
- 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 · Deluca-Owl OR-71
- Aircraft type
- Deluca Owl OR-71
- 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
- N1VD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4SD · Reno/Stead, NVTo 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
- 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Tuttle Cassutt IIIM
- Aircraft type
- Tuttle Cassutt IIIM
- 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
- N11XR
- Operator
- Gary Hubler
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4SD · Reno, NVTo 4SD · Reno, NV
- 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
- 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
The pilots were participating in a low-level aerial race around pylon delineated course. Due to the wind conditions, the pilots departed in a scattered array, and then flew a teardrop pattern to begin the race. The Deluca-Owl airplane was in the lead as the group of airplanes reached the starting pylon. At the first pylon the Owl entered a left bank as the Cassutt airplane passed it on the outside and below. In this position, it would have been very difficult for the pilot of the Owl to see the Cassutt. The Cassutt was then ahead of the Owl as it continued to bank around the pylon. The Owl and the Cassutt collided at this point, and the Cassutt rolled and impacted the ground. The Owl pitched up and the pilot landed it on the side of a runway. According to race requirements, "An aircraft overtaken must not in any way impede or interfere with a faster overtaking plane. The overtaking pilot must keep the overtaken aircraft in sight at all times during the pass. An aircraft overtaking a slower aircraft will not pass between that aircraft and a pylon and will pass on the outside until the over taken aircraft is extremely wide and can be kept in sight at all times during the pass by the overtaking pilot." According to race personnel, there are no specifications for passing above or below a slower aircraft.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilots of both aircraft to maintain an adequate visual lookout and clearance from one another during a low altitude aerial race.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA07FA264
- Event ID
- 20070924X01441
- Case number
- SEA07FA264
- 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: a58ec12337473f8e6867caac4090cc55e9f869ec5e5cdf797b3150f9d696fec3; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:17:25.476Z.