SEA08CA123 · Vans Aircraft RV-7A
Vans Aircraft RV-7A · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) during initial climb
From Hollister Municipal Airport (KCVH) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA08CA123
- 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
- 0 · 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
Vans Aircraft RV-7A
- Aircraft type
- Vans RV-7
- 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
- N269SD
- Operator
- Sean Patrick Farrell
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hollister Municipal Airport (KCVH), Hollister, CATo 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
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during takeoff initial climb, a large bird impacted the leading edge of the left wing slightly outboard of the fuel tank. The airplane immediately yawed and banked to left. The pilot attempted to straighten the airplane and land, however, despite his control inputs, the airplane continued to roll to the left. Subsequently, the left wing struck the ground and the airplane cart wheeled. Examination of the airplane revealed structural damage to the outboard sections of both wings and empennage. No mechanical anomalies were reported with the engine or airframe. A large deceased goose was found in the debris field following the accident.
Probable cause
The in-flight collision with a bird.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA08CA123
- Event ID
- 20080508X00628
- Case number
- SEA08CA123
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2008-05-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b43f92320f9ee55747a86bcb389788ea81faeb87946b05ce52fed93a77bba525; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:37:53.983Z.