GAA16CA132 · Consolidated Vultee BT 15
Consolidated Vultee BT 15 and Mooney M20J · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA132
- 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 · Consolidated Vultee BT 15
- Aircraft type
- Consolidated Vultee BT-15
- 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
- N67086
- Operator
- Curtiss Bruce Christenson
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, CATo Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 73 years (built 1943)
- 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
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Mooney M20J
- Aircraft type
- Mooney M20
- 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
- N201DQ
- Operator
- Brande Lewis
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, CATo Chino Airport (CNO), Chino, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1977)
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the taxiing pilot, during taxi to the run-up area in order to perform a maintenance check, he attempted to maneuver around an airplane that had stopped in the non-movement area. He reported that the left wing of his airplane impacted the tail of the stopped airplane.
According to the pilot of the stopped airplane, he had taxied out of the refuel station in order to allow other aircraft to refuel. He reported that he taxied south and stopped in the non-movement area next to the aircraft tie downs, where he remained stopped for approximately five minutes as he set up the radios and received the ATIS information for his flight. He reported that he felt an impact from the rear of his airplane; he shut down his engine, and exited the airplane.
The taxiing airplane sustained minor damage to the left wing and stopped airplane sustained substantial damage to the aft fuselage and vertical stabilizer.
Both pilots reported that there were no mechanical failures or anomalies with the airplane prior to or during the taxi that would have prevented normal flight operation.
Probable cause
The taxiing pilot's failure to remain a safe distance from the stopped airplane while taxiing to the run-up area, resulting in a ground collision and substantial damage.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA132
- Event ID
- 20160216X81612
- Case number
- GAA16CA132
- 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: 15f8fed229abd4b8ce844aee82c32c36b22e286b2ab0070f66e22b652a521ac0; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:24:53.320Z.