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GAA16CA127 · Cessna 150 M

12 Feb 2016 · Santa Paula, CA, United States

CP Aviation Cessna 150 M and Cornick, William E. Trustee Aviat Aircraft Inc S-2 C · Accident: ground collision while taxiing

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Event

NTSB case
GAA16CA127
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 · Cessna 150 M

Aircraft type
Cessna 150
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
N704SL
Operator
CP Aviation
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, CATo Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, CA
Aircraft age
About 40 years (built 1976)
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
Taxi
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
Ground 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 · Aviat Aircraft Inc S-2 C

Aircraft type
Aviat S-2
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
N57BC
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Camarillo International Airport (CMA), Camarillo, CATo Santa Paula Airport (SZP), Santa Paula, CA
Aircraft age
About 15 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
Taxi · from runway
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
Ground 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 systems
  • Personnel issues › Psychological
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot of the tailwheel equipped airplane reported that, "Due to the restricted visibility from the rear cockpit," he "failed to the see the C-150 that stopped on the taxiway." Subsequently, the propeller of the tailwheel airplane impacted the vertical stabilizer of a stationary Cessna airplane. The student pilot of the Cessna airplane reported that he was preparing for the engine run-up and never saw the tailwheel airplane until after the collision.

A postaccident examination revealed substantial damage to the vertical stabilizer of the Cessna airplane.

The pilot of the tailwheel airplane and the student pilot of the Cessna airplane reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with their respective airplanes that would have precluded normal operation.

Probable cause

The tailwheel pilot's failure to see and avoid a stationary airplane performing a run-up, which resulted in a ground collision.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record GAA16CA127
Event ID
20160216X30546
Case number
GAA16CA127
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: e121993f98923c0b6be46073a943c7a6fd7a18e6f7af2abc2dc8a7a253249767; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:24:49.950Z.