Minden NV. Midair Collision 16 Sept 2024

CAP C-206 vs 1946 Globe Swift collide in the crosswind turn to downwind.
LINKS:

Theme: "Weightless" Aram Bedrosian

[blancolirio]

Correction: The red oil is from the Constant Speed Prop of the 206 (when it lost it's blade), NOT the 5606 Hyd Fluid from the Swift.

[TheJhicks]

I witnessed this crash happen. The swift was not just on fire, there was an intense explosion immediately after impact. The swift was flying from the south.

[AlexMalikin]

Juan, you're more a journalist than most people who called themselves journalists. Thank you for all you do to keep everyone more informed and safe.

[mikewilley]

Flying into our non towered airport in the MSP class B airspace, any concern I have about “the FAA knowing where I am” is greatly overshadowed by the traffic information I get on ADSB. It likely would have saved his life..

[tedsaylor]

We need to get Juan some more quality airplane models, he deserves them.

[flier]

Thank you for preaching to fly the airplane until it stops. When I had my engine out and landed in a riverbed last year in my 172, no exaggeration your words were literally going through my mind as I was rolling over the rocks before coming to a stop. Little did I know I only had half my horizontal stabilizer!

[AlanCheak]

I operate a Comanche 250 out of a field just south of Atlanta. My field, along with three other nearby airfields, have a lot of training flights belonging to several flight schools at our airfield. As such, I now come come into the pattern at pattern altitude minus 100’. I think a good idea that NTSB should adopt would be high wing aircraft enter and fly the pattern altitude plus 100’ while low wing aircraft enter and fly the pattern at 100’ below said altitude. Former B-777 FedEx captain. Owned my Comanche for over thirty three years.

[scottiniowa]

Excellent demonstration of Aviate, Navigate, Communicate by the CAP instructor

[johnallport]

Almost identical to a fantastically lucky near miss I experienced at Toronto Island Airport (Now Billy Bishop Airport, YTZ) in 1972. I was on my second solo flight, flying a Cessna 150. I was on the crosswind leg, just a couple seconds from achieving the circuit height at 1250ft asl, so was still in nose-high climb attitude. At the moment that I lowered the nose to commence the turn onto downwind, I came face on to the flying school Piper Seneca twin making an improper 45 degree entry to the downwind at the crosswind corner rather than halfway down. I could see and identify the instructor and student before they dropped a wing and spiraled out of sight. I went through their wake turbulence perhaps a half second later. I'm still here, so yes, I got my aircraft back on the ground! ... my circuit was not pretty (landing was perfect) but I had the tower clear the circuit before attempting it, as I was pretty much messed up. "How did this happen?" you could ask. There is always Swiss cheese! In this case, the Flight School 'rules' were that the student would not be charged for a second wet hour with instructor if the plane was on the ground by the 1hr, 5min mark. They had miscalculated the day's exercises and were 'late'. The instructor was flying, to save the student's wallet, and went for a cowboy entry to downwind. I was low and climbing, blind to them, and donkey dumb, and they were in a low wing Seneca, and blind to me, seemingly similar to today's report. I never again flew a crosswind without dropping the nose a couple times in the last 100ft of climb to check the horizon for interlopers. But it was just dumb luck that I had those chances at all. This one gave me the shivers!

[lonzo]

I owned a Swift from 2012 to 2019. I never met Don Bartholomew, owner of the Swift involved in this midair, but I knew him by reputation. I think I also sat in on one of this seminars at one of the Swift Nationals. This is very sad news and a great loss to that type club. At least the other airplane landed safely. That takes some of the sting out of this tragic incident.

I'm offering my condolences to the entire Swift community for this most unfortunate incident. And thanks to Juan for providing this service to us aviators, and also for commenting on Mr. Bartholomew and his contributions to the Swift type club.

[gregscally]

We live in a world where privacy or perhaps more correctly anonymity is almost impossible. ADSB might reduce a pilot's perceived privacy but the safety advantage benefit far out weighs any loss of anonymity. Excellent reporting once again, Juan.

[Warbirddriver]

Some of the red spray you see on the 206 could be from the swifts hydraulics however the majority of it is a red dye is stored inside the hub of many McCauley propellers. It helps indicate if a crack has formed in the hub as the dye will begin to seep from the crack making it more easily visible.

[smartysmarty]

I had a near mid-air some 20+ years ago. We got close enough that I could see he had David Clark headphones and blonde hair. It was no more than a 15' separation, and that's probably being generous. What saved us was altitude. He was about 5' above me and probably missed my tail by inches. It was the classic high wing low wing situation on a rural Wisconsin severe VFR day. It was all over in one second, and our collision was probably avoided by one second as well. This is something you never, ever forget and I think about it often. I highly doubt he even knew about it, as he was above me in some Cherokee product coming directly over/across the right wing of my 182. Scan for traffic all you want, but bad things can still happen. My flight back home that day was surreal and mechanical. I felt robotic, still absorbing what just happened.

[dluksch]

Such a bummer about the swift pilot. I moved to Tennessee to do my flight training a few months ago but I grew up in northern Nevada and have flown with civil air patrol in the Tahoe area and flown GA out of Minden. The 206 being able to land in the shape it was in after the collision is amazing, and the CAP pilots surviving is something to be truly thankful for.

[mortekaieve]

I was lined up behind a Civil Air Patrol Cessna for about 15 minutes on the 16th admiring it's paint job. It wasn't in NV, but I was hoping they weren't doing a cross country and crashed over there. What a horrible accident, great job by the instructor. I would have never thought the oil access on the cowling would play such a role. Condolences to the friends and family of Mr. Bartholomew.

While a part of me understands his affinity to ADSB tracking his movement, it's so important to take as many safety precautions as possible not only for yourself, but for other pilots and both pilots passengers and loved ones. If you have a cell phone they'll track you if they really want.

Edit: Just looked into this because the ADS-B being off didn't sound right. 91.225(f) - Except as prohibited in paragraph (i)(2) of this section, each person operating an aircraft equipped with ADS-B Out must operate this equipment in the transmit mode at all times unless - Authorized by the FAA when the aircraft is performing a sensitive government mission, requested by ATC if operation would jeopardize safe execution of traffic control, military operations for national security. The exception in 91.225 (i)(2) is in regards to unmanned aircraft. Mr. Bartholomew appears to have been violating a FAR in his operations of this aircraft, and according to friends he violated this often.

[jdbarney]

Always interested in midair collisions. My father survived one in San Antonio, TX back in 1990. He was the CFI in a Cessna 172 (N1466V). Thanks for all your great content!

[WinstonBenbow]

Juan, having walked away from a mid-air in our Skylane C-182 (N95726) over Richmond in 1984, your high-wing comments are exceptionally relevant. Had I been flying a low-wing aircraft, I'm convinced I would have seen the other aircraft (also high-wing) with ample time to avoid the collision.

[camward]

I always tell my students to talk early and often on the radio (but not too often obviously). Can't stand it at uncontrolled fields when people don't announce their presence until they're about 20 seconds from entering the traffic pattern. I mean, the whole point of a radio is to give people *advanced* warning.

[gerrycarmichael]

When I was in college at ERAU Prescott in the early 80's two aircraft from the local FBO's collided mid air. Both crews were able to execute successful emergency landings and walk away but to look at those two airplanes you'd have been hard pressed to figure how they came together without fatal results.

[pilotrhino]

Not using ADSB (terrible idea). Entering pattern wrong (terrible idea), not communicating until in the pattern (terrible idea). All totally legal. If you want to endanger yourself, go for it. But I want to come home to my family, so please don’t be so selfish.