WPR12CA005 · Combs Dale B RV-4
Combs Dale B RV-4 and Freitag Ernst VANS RV-8 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12CA005
- 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 · Combs Dale B RV-4
- Aircraft type
- Combs Dale RV-4
- 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
- N506DC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sierra Sky Park Airport (E79), Fresno, CATo Sierra Sky Park Airport (E79), Fresno, CA
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
Aircraft 2 · Freitag Ernst VANS RV-8
- Aircraft type
- Freitag Ernst VANS RV-8
- 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
- N427EF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sierra Sky Park Airport (E79), Fresno, CATo Sierra Sky Park Airport (E79), Madera, CA
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The two accident airplanes were part of a three-airplane formation flight comprised of an RV-8 airplane in the lead position, an RV-8 in the second position, and an RV-4 in the third position. The group performed a formation flight briefing prior to flight. Three uneventful formation maneuvers were performed after departure; for the fourth maneuver, the lead pilot made a radio call commanding the group to begin a climbing left turn. All members of the group responded in the affirmative, and the lead pilot pitched his airplane up and began the turn. After a 2-second interval, the second RV-8 pilot began the maneuver, following the first airplane. The RV-4 pilot then began the maneuver and momentarily lost visual contact with the second RV-8. He then made visual contact with the lead airplane but misidentified it as the second RV-8. He then realized he was in error, but, just as he was about to perform evasive maneuvers, his airplane struck the second RV-8. The RV-4 sustained substantial damage to the aft fuselage, and the left wing tip and aileron partially separated from the airplane after making contact with the propeller of the RV-8. The pilot reported that the airplane began a 4,000-foot-per-minute spiraling descent and did not respond to aileron control inputs. He regained control of the airplane utilizing rudder, elevator, and throttle control, and subsequently performed a forced landing into a field. The RV-8 sustained substantial damage to the outboard section of the right wing leading edge and returned to the departure airport uneventfully. Both pilots reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The third airplane pilot’s failure to maintain visual contact with the second airplane during the formation flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12CA005
- Event ID
- 20111012X23408
- Case number
- WPR12CA005
- 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: b2a068d44df1b516a9e9836ea5298ce871f1366be4419a6b733beef9aa209a50; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:20:03.514Z.