ERA15LA172 · Merian Richard F RV 8
Merian Richard F RV 8 and Kight Daniel H RV 6 · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA15LA172
- 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 · Merian Richard F RV 8
- Aircraft type
- Merian Richard 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
- N8JL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL), Tuscaloosa, ALTo Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL), Tuscaloosa, AL
- Aircraft age
- About 14 years (built 2001)
- 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 · aerobatics
- 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 · Kight Daniel H RV 6
- Aircraft type
- Kight Daniel RV-6
- 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
- N722DK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL), Tuscaloosa, ALTo Tuscaloosa National Airport (TCL), Tuscaloosa, AL
- Aircraft age
- About 13 years (built 2002)
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The two experimental amateur-built airplanes were part of an air show team that was participating in an air show. At the time of the accident, an RV-6 and another airplane were flying in formation at an altitude of 500 ft above the ground, while the pilot an RV-8 intended to circle around the two airplanes from behind. While circling in a counter-clockwise direction, the RV-8 converged on the two airplanes flying in formation. The propeller of the RV-6, and the right elevator and horizontal stabilizer of the RV-8 made contact. The pilot of the RV-6 reported that the maneuver called for the RV-8 to be 100 ft behind the leading airplane. He was flying straight and level and focused on the airplane flying in formation on his left side when his airplane began to experience a sudden severe vibration. The pilot of the RV-8 reported that his airplane had overtaken the two airplanes and that he did not correct to compensate. He observed one of the airplanes pass off his left and heard a "bang" at that time. The RV-6 sustained minor damage to its propeller and the RV-8 sustained substantial damage to its right elevator and horizontal stabilizer. Both airplanes subsequently landed without further incident.
Probable cause
The RV-8 pilot's failure to maintain adequate clearance from the RV-6 while maneuvering during an air show, which resulted in a midair collision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA15LA172
- Event ID
- 20150330X71955
- Case number
- ERA15LA172
- 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: 5b6373178a5a69e0a2df6109505d46bf4cd2d03bd8d485eb90fc46612b7e02e6; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:23:50.744Z.