WPR09LA024 · Holm Michael J KITFOX IV 1200
Holm Michael J KITFOX IV 1200 and Taylorcraft BL-65 · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09LA024
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Holm Michael J KITFOX IV 1200
- Aircraft type
- Holm Michael KITFOX IV 1200
- 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
- N427ET
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZTo Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZ
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Ground collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Taylorcraft BL-65
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft BL-65
- 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
- N27639
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZTo Glendale Municipal Airport (GEU), Glendale, AZ
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Ground 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
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Kitfox's pilot notified the local controller that he experienced a malfunction with his airspeed indicator and desired to make a full stop landing on runway 19. Meanwhile, the Taylorcraft pilot requested clearance to taxi for takeoff. The local and ground controllers issued the pilots their respective clearances, and the pilots proceeded as cleared. The Kitfox landed without further mishap and chose to egress the runway in a southwesterly direction using high speed taxiway A6, which terminates at taxiway A. The pilot of the Kitfox remained on the local control frequency during the time the airplane was exiting the runway and approaching taxiway A. The Taylorcraft pilot was monitoring the ground control frequency as he proceeded as cleared in a northerly direction on taxiway A, located west and parallel to runway 19. The Kitfox initially decelerated on runway 19, and further slowed on taxiways A6 and A. The collision occurred as the Kitfox began occupying the intersection of taxiways A6 and A. The visibility from both cockpits was reduced due to the fact that both airplanes were equipped with tail wheels. The converging taxi routes and the airplanes were in clear view of the controllers; however, the controllers failed to issue the pilots advisories or instructions to preclude the collision. The airport was designed such that the midfield egress point from runway 19 was located near the ingress point for airplanes that are taxiing out of the midfield parking ramp.
Probable cause
The Kitfox's pilot's failure to ascertain if the intersection he approached was clear of conflicting traffic and the controller's failure to provide pertinent traffic advisories to both pilots. Contributing to the accident was the reduced visibility from the cockpits of the conventional gear airplanes.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09LA024
- Event ID
- 20081025X15903
- Case number
- WPR09LA024
- 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: investigation status. 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: 7f4f83299d12c4b53559394a08cac58d61398f6ed9e23f5cc015098576ffafbc; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:14:40.854Z.