CEN10IA447 · Piper PA-32R-301
Piper PA-32R-301 and Piper PA-11 · Incident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN10IA447
- 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
- Incident
- 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 · Piper PA-32R-301
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N8159B
- Operator
- Heitzmann Donald F
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dodge County Airport (KUNU), Juneau, WITo Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH), Oshkosh, WI
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-11
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-11
- 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
- N78659
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport (KDKB), De Kalb, ILTo Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH), Oshkosh, WI
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot of the PA-11, a high-wing airplane, prior to entering the arrival route he performed a visual check to look for traffic in the area and then crossed Ripon, WI, at 90 knots and at an altitude of 1,800 feet. According to the pilot of the PA-32, a low-wing airplane, prior to entering the arrival route at Ripon he performed a visual check to look for traffic in the area, slowed to 90 knots, and descended to 1,800 feet. He increased his airspeed to between 95 and 100 knots upon hearing controllers advise pilots to keep their speed up. The pilot of the PA-11 observed the PA-32 come from above him, impact his propeller, and continue past him. Both airplanes landed without further incident. Examination of both airplanes revealed damage indicating a collision between the propeller blade of the PA-11 and the left main landing gear tire of the PA-32. No other damage was noted; an examination of the airframe and systems on both airplanes revealed no preexisting anomalies.
Probable cause
The inability of either pilot to see the other airplane due to the blind spot created by their respective airplane's wings.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN10IA447
- Event ID
- 20100730X91552
- Case number
- CEN10IA447
- 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: 1d4d6b8c2cae421e61230dc61e692b9114d6142c66fd762d8659c7698076b90f; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:16:57.920Z.