WPR16LA185 · Hoover David ARNOLD AR 6
Hoover David ARNOLD AR 6 and Reberry Brian 3M1C1R · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR16LA185
- 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 · Hoover David ARNOLD AR 6
- Aircraft type
- Hoover David ARNOLD AR 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
- N616DH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NVTo Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NV
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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 · Reberry Brian 3M1C1R
- Aircraft type
- Reberry Brian 3
- 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
- N913FT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NVTo Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2011)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Organizational issues › Management
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While waiting for the start of a closed air race, eight airplanes were positioned on the runway staggered in three rows; three airplanes in the first row, two in the second row, and three in the third row. The airplane designated as Race 11 was positioned in the middle of the third row, and the airplane designated as Race 1 was positioned on the left side in the second row. Before the race start, all the airplanes were operating at takeoff power waiting for the race start signal.
The pilot of Race 1 reported that, just before the start, his engine was not running well and he made the decision to abort and shut the engine down nearly simultaneously with the start of the race. The pilot of Race 11 reported that, once he saw the start flag, he initiated his takeoff roll. As the tail of his airplane came up, he saw Race 1 stationary on the runway and he attempted to swerve out of the way and get his airplane airborne. However, his airplane collided with Race 1.
Review of onboard video recordings from both Race 11 and Race 1 as well as witness reports revealed that, when the race started, all the airplanes except for Race 1 began the takeoff sequence. Onboard video from Race 11 revealed that, during the approximate 11 seconds after the takeoff roll commenced, the pilot allowed his airplane to drift left, which resulted in a collision with stationary Race 1. If all the airplanes were aligned correctly, it would have allowed adequate horizontal distance between the second and third rows for airplanes to pass by one another. It is likely that, if the pilot of Race 11 maintained a straight takeoff roll and not allowed his airplane to drift left, the collision may have been avoided.
Additional video recordings from witnesses revealed that, at the time of the collision, no red flags were being displayed to signal an abort to the race start. Review of race rules in place at the time of the accident revealed that, at the start of the race, all rows will launch simultaneously; however, anyone aborting take off, "will abort straight ahead and attempt to clear to the end of the runway expeditiously." No written procedures were in place for aborting before the time of the start of the race.
Probable cause
The pilot of Race 11’s failure to maintain clearance from Race 1 during takeoff, and the insufficient abort procedures specified within the race rules. Contributing to the accident was the pilot of Race 1’s decision to shut down the engine on the runway and his failure to follow existing abort procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR16LA185
- Event ID
- 20160920X14749
- Case number
- WPR16LA185
- 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: 0d14ccbadebbd98c5008df696e59f44298bc93df1d6c6c6b404672bbdc4b9387; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:25:40.617Z.