WPR11LA068 · Taylorcraft BC-65
Berg Air Taylorcraft BC-65 and Cessna 185A · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA068
- 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 · Taylorcraft BC-65
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft BC-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
- N23619
- Operator
- Berg Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Madras Municipal Airport (S33), Madras, ORTo Madras Municipal Airport (S33), Madras, OR
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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 · Cessna 185A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 185
- 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
- N1699Z
- Operator
- Weems John Scott
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Madras Municipal Airport (S33), Madras, ORTo Madras Municipal Airport (S33), Madras, OR
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The propeller of a Taylorcraft airplane and the empennage of a Cessna airplane came in contact with each other while both aircraft were on final approach to the same runway. The pilot of the Cessna had completed a landing and performed a standard entry (left) onto the downwind leg of the traffic pattern. The pilot of the Taylorcraft was returning from a local area training flight and entered the downwind leg of the traffic pattern from a standard mid-field 45-degree entry. The Cessna pilot was announcing his position on the common traffic advisory frequency during each segment of the pattern; however, the pilot of the Taylorcraft could not hear the transmissions since his airplane was not equipped with a radio. Just prior to impact, the pilot of the Taylorcraft observed the empennage of the Cessna underneath the left wing of his airplane. The pilot of the Cessna never observed the Taylorcraft, but heard a loud bang come from the aft end of his airplane at impact. Both pilots were able to land their airplanes without further incident.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilots to see and avoid the other airplane while in the traffic pattern to land, which resulted in a midair collision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA068
- Event ID
- 20101201X74125
- Case number
- WPR11LA068
- 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, 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: fce0cc589971d71ed820aa927ea6655847fd30892dc910b7c7e75fa7d052f7a3; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:17:42.757Z.