ERA09LA152 · Piper PA-18 -150
Flightline Group Piper PA-18 -150 · Accident: ground collision during takeoff
From Tallahassee, FL to Tallahassee, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09LA152
- 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
- 2
- 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
Piper PA-18 -150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N2424A
- Operator
- Flightline Group
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tallahassee, FLTo Tallahassee, FL
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he had previously performed a maneuver where a jeep and motorcycle would depart traveling down the runway, and he would then depart in the same direction and perform a low pass over them. On the day of the accident there was no briefing about the maneuver before the motorcycle, jeep, and he departed. The motorcycle departed first, followed by the jeep with two occupants, and finally the airplane. The pilot stated that he estimated he was flying at 75 mile-per-hour (mph) and the jeep was driving at 35 to 40 mph. He attempted to pass the right side of the jeep, but felt a bump and he knew he had hit the jeep. He also noticed the left wing navigation light was hanging down. He performed a 180-degree turn and landed on the runway, while the jeep veered off the runway and collided with trees. The pilot further reported there was no preimpact failure or malfunction with the flight controls. Toxicology testing performed on specimens obtained from the pilot after the accident was positive for 11-Nor 9 carboxy delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol 8.1 ng/mL, and negative for ethyl alcohol. The finding of carboxy tetrahydrocannabinol was consistent with the pilot having used marijuana within the previous days or weeks but it cannot be concluded that the use was contributory to the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to initiate takeoff in close proximity to other vehicles which were operating on the runway resulting in collision with a vehicle during takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09LA152
- Event ID
- 20090202X13220
- Case number
- ERA09LA152
- 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: 7ba2fab2194ec0b5f9299b35d736b74e04111301236c6a19f497896d8dc0dcdc; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:00:50.993Z.