WPR14FA174 · Cessna 210E
Sanders Aircraft Cessna 210E and Sanders Aircraft Hawker SEA FURY TMK 20 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR14FA174
- 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
- 1 · 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 · Cessna 210E
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- 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
- N4962U
- Operator
- Sanders Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Half Moon Bay Airport (HAF), Half Moon Bay, CATo Eagle's Nest Airport (CA20), Ione, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 49 years (built 1965)
- 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
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Hawker SEA FURY TMK 20
- Aircraft type
- Hawker SEA FURY TMK 20
- 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
- N20SF
- Operator
- Sanders Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Half Moon Bay Airport (HAF), Half Moon Bay, CATo Eagle's Nest Airport (CA20), Ione, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 58 years (built 1956)
- 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 Sea Fury pilot and the Cessna pilot had flown their airplanes to a nearby airport to display them at an open house. The two pilots then briefed the return flights with each other and determined their flight routes. The Sea Fury departed, flew over the airport, and rendezvoused with another airplane for a photo shoot. They flew several 360-degree patterns, and the Sea Fury pilot observed the Cessna during one of his turns, and noted that it was on the briefed course. He completed the photo work and set his course for the return to their home airport.
The Sea Fury pilot made radio contact with the Cessna pilot on a common, briefed frequency, and the Cessna pilot responded with his position. The Sea Fury pilot made visual contact with the Cessna forward and to the left, and the Cessna pilot responded that he had visual contact of the Sea Fury. The Cessna's airspeed was about 150 knots, and the Sea Fury's airspeed was about 200 knots. Approaching from well behind, the Sea Fury pilot advised the Cessna pilot that the Sea Fury was low and to the left. The Cessna pilot acknowledged visual contact again and broadcast that he wanted to take a picture. The Sea Fury pilot replied that there would probably not be time due to the speed differential. The Sea Fury pilot observed the trajectory and flight profile of the Cessna abruptly change to a left roll so that he could see the top of the Cessna's wing. The Sea Fury pilot attempted to avoid the Cessna by pitching his airplane nose down; however, he felt and heard a thump and realized that the two airplanes had collided. He pulled up and looked over his shoulder; he observed the Cessna inverted and going down. He squawked code 7700 on the transponder, and, due to communications issues, reported the midair collision and position of the Cessna to air traffic control via relay by another aircraft pilot.
The Sea Fury pilot initiated a climb, and conducted a controllability check; he determined that he could control the airplane in the current configuration. He continued to his home airport and made a successful full-stop landing.
The Sea Fury pilot stated that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the Sea Fury and the recovered portions of the Cessna did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of the airplanes.
The last couple of minutes of data points from a GPS unit in the Cessna indicated a northeasterly track at GPS-derived groundspeeds of about 150 knots. The last few data points indicated that the airplane began to descend with varied groundspeeds, and the final data point was 212 knots at 854 ft. A review of recorded radar data showed two targets with one target approaching from behind and low. As the targets merged, the data points could not be attributed to either airplane because they were within the accuracy limits of the transmitting/recording systems.
Probable cause
Both pilots’ failure to maintain adequate clearance from each other during cruise flight while in visual contact with each other. Contributing to the accident was the unexpected abrupt maneuver made by the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR14FA174
- Event ID
- 20140427X21627
- Case number
- WPR14FA174
- 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: 844431f88a2256e26d0716ac0f394ecc1409ca54ac86972f182ce7089b649524; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:07:54.594Z.