CEN17FA063 · Piper PA28R 200
Piper PA28R 200 and Luscombe 8 A · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN17FA063
- 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
- 3 · 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 · Piper PA28R 200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N4407T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aero Country Airport (T31), McKinney, TXTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1972)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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 · Luscombe 8 A
- Aircraft type
- Luscombe 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
- N2889K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aero Country Airport (T31), McKinney, TXTo Aero Country Airport (T31), McKinney, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 69 years (built 1947)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilots were making personal flights in the two airplanes, a Luscombe and a Piper, when the airplanes collided in midair in the traffic pattern of the nontowered airport where both airplanes were based. The Luscombe, with a commercial pilot and a passenger onboard departed from runway 17 at the airport, turned left to an east heading, and then left to a north heading, which placed the Luscombe on the downwind leg of the airport traffic pattern. Meanwhile, the Piper with a private pilot aboard approached the airport from the northwest, turned east, and then crossed the airport near midfield about 1,800 ft mean sea level, the airport's traffic pattern altitude. The Piper collided with the Luscombe, and both airplanes entered uncontrolled descents and impacted terrain about a quarter of a mile apart.
Postaccident examination of the wreckage found pieces of the Luscombe with the Piper wreckage and pieces of the Piper with the Luscombe wreckage. Paint and transfer marks on the Luscombe were consistent with the Piper impacting the left rear of the Luscombe.
One pilot-rated witness reported that he saw no indication that either pilot saw the other before the airplanes collided, and the radar data showed no indication of maneuvering to avoid a collision by either airplane. The Luscombe's high-wing configuration and the convergence angle of the airplanes that required the Luscombe pilot to look west into a setting sun to see the Piper likely restricted the Luscombe pilot's ability to see the Piper approaching from his left-rear side. The Piper's low wing configuration may also have restricted the Piper pilot's ability to see the Luscombe that was in front of and likely slightly below him. Further, the Piper pilot's decision to use an alternate traffic pattern entry procedure and cross midfield at traffic pattern altitude rather than at least 500 ft above pattern altitude, which is the preferred traffic pattern entry procedure recommended in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidance material, provided less opportunity for him to see the Luscombe.
Witnesses reported hearing the Luscombe pilot making radio calls on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF). They further reported hearing the pilots of other airplanes making calls on the CTAF, but they were not sure if any of the calls were from the Piper pilot. Therefore, it could not be determined if the Piper pilot was making the FAA-recommended traffic pattern entry radio calls.
Probable cause
The pilot's use of an alternate traffic pattern entry procedure, which resulted in his inability to see and avoid the other airplane, which was flying the preferred traffic pattern, and the subsequent midair collision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN17FA063
- Event ID
- 20161231X24638
- Case number
- CEN17FA063
- 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, coordinates. 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: a8348d06e67260fa21fc3901025964794c3c1da9fb4174721d2dcd45d7827a97; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:09:37.028Z.