WPR24LA317 · Yakovlev YAK-50
Yakovlev YAK-50 and Beech S35 · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24LA317
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 · Yakovlev YAK-50
- Aircraft type
- Yakovlev YAK-50
- 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
- N613BM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 40 years (built 1984)
- 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 · to 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Beech S35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N6027F
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Salinas Municipal Airport (SNS), Salinas, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 59 years (built 1965)
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- 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 Yak-50 reported that he started taxiing from the airport transient area towards the active runway as the lead airplane for a formation training flight with three airplanes following behind. He remarked that there is no forward visibility in his tailwheel equipped airplane and typically completes S turns to improve his visibility. However, the pilot assumed the approaching run-up area was clear and was concerned that the airplane’s pneumatic system was low, so he decided not to perform any additional turns to conserve air. He traversed the intersecting runway and still did not accomplish an S turn because he was now distracted by the radio and still trying to conserve air. As he approached the engine run-up area he looked to the left and then looked to the right at which time he observed his right wingtip contact the propeller of the Beechcraft S35, which resulted in substantial damage to the right wing. According to the pilot of the Beechcraft S35, he had finished his engine run-up at the active runway and was waiting for airplanes to pass and takeoff before he departed. While configuring his radio for the flight he noticed movement on his left and observed the Yak-50 moving quickly. The Yak-50 did not follow the curve of the taxiway and its right wing impacted his airplane. The pilots of both airplanes reported no preimpact mechanical anomalies or malfunctions that could have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The Yak-50 pilot’s failure to maintain clearance from another airplane while taxiing and maneuvering. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s inattention due to a distraction inside the cockpit.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24LA317
- Event ID
- 20240930195228
- Case number
- WPR24LA317
- 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, cause areas. 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: e7507b79a888cf7339309c8c75d02b73f452be0ded4798709f7f8bcb9210e597; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:46:44.078Z.