WPR19TA068 · Pitts S1 T
Pitts S1 T and Rutan VARIEZE · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR19TA068
- 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 · Pitts S1 T
- Aircraft type
- Pitts S1
- 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
- N31WK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, CATo Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 24 years (built 1995)
- 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 · Rutan VARIEZE
- Aircraft type
- Rutan VARIEZE
- 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
- N27GM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, CATo Zamperini Field (TOA), Torrance, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1980)
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped biplane had landed and was taxiing to his hangar while monitoring the control tower frequency. The pilot did not perform S-turns during his taxi and was not informed of another airplane in his proximity. The pilot of a low-wing airplane was parked near a movement boundary area. He watched the biplane taxi down the taxiway without performing S-turns. The pilot of the low-wing airplane had previously contacted the ground controller and was not informed of the taxiing biplane. The biplane impacted the low-wing airplane, resulting in substantial damage to the low-wing airplane and minor damage to the biplane. The pilot of the biplane stated that he had limited forward visibility, and he may have prevented the accident had he made more S-turns, and if both airplanes had been on the same frequency at the time of the collision. Both pilots stated that there were no mechanical problems with their respective airplanes.
Probable cause
The biplane pilot’s inadequate visual lookout while taxing, which resulted in a ground collision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR19TA068
- Event ID
- 20190119X90641
- Case number
- WPR19TA068
- 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: a0abe35f1836d0ea10abfc064397a272e08a4d1b051873a4e21b1cf6afb78cc6; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:31:51.256Z.