Early Analysis: Midair Collision at North Las Vegas 

UPDATE: The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report (ERA22FA318) regarding the investigation into the mid-air between a Piper PA-46-350P (N97CX) and a Cessna 172N (N160RA) At the North Las Vegas airport, NV. data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/105496/pdf

Rest In Peace Tony. You were my first instructor and taught me how to fly from the ground up in private, how to instrument fly, and how to hone those skills further in the commercial phase. Thank you for your patience with me during that time. You gave it your all as an instructor and as a teacher. God speed.

What a calm, professional presentation of known fact. Extremely impressive. Thank you.

I did my flight training at KCHD, which has parallel offset runways. I did this exact thing twice as a pre-solo student. On both occasions I was making right traffic (T&G) for 22R. But I saw 22L first, because it is the first one you see as you're making the base to final turn, so I started to line up on the wrong runway. On both occasions, my instructor quickly identified the issue and had me correct it. I think about this every single time I'm coming into land now. All it takes is a small distraction, and this can happen quickly and easily. In this case, the consequences are horribly tragic. RIP to the four that lost their lives.

Tragic. Definitely makes me think about being even more cautious when you have offset runways. Condolences to all their families.

I work an airport with parallel runways. I always give the traffic when aircraft will be on final together. It's a mandatory traffic call in my opinion. I can't stop them from coming together, but they are going to know about each other.

I'm a fresh CFI with about 500TT, I'll definitely be teaching belly checks to my students from now on. Good content as always

Richard is extremely professional and a great presenter. I love the way logic flows in your explanations. Great work for the community! :)

I’m a student pilot in the later stages of my training and still forget to tilt the wing to check for traffic before turns every now and then. I don’t work with parallel runways, at least yet, but after watching this, I’ll definitely be extra aware of my blind spots.

I learned to fly out of this airport. So sad. I will be forever grateful that my instructor was so strict about situational awareness. RIP to those involved, and best thoughts to their families.

Calm, rational, knowledgeable and informative. Your video has all the items I look for and appreciate

Thanks for posting and the great early analysis.

Using Tower for a casual "Hey, where are you coming from?" might seem innocuous, but it violates the sterile cockpit concept that should be maintained during landing. It's tough to resist being friendly to friends, but this sort of distraction shouldn't be forced on pilots. The controller should also feel empowered to chastise the improper use of his frequency.

I frequent North Vegas aiport, was there today actually, and I find it a bit disturbing how easily this transpired under tower controllers eyes and I hope all the details are investigated. I spoke to people who know this couple (on the piper) personally and they made it clear that the husband was very hard of hearing. The husband/wife were both pilots to my understanding, but the husband was in his 80s and couldnt hear very well (current medical?), while the wife was mid 70s and I suspect operating the radios (because she can hear better). This means there was likely some secondary communications onboard between the two, for traffic managament and potentially a PIC that shouldnt be PIC. It will be very important to determine who was PIC that day but this is their frequent spot to fly into and somehow aimed at the wrong runway. The two in the Cessna were an instructor and student, they didnt even see it comin. These busier airports with a lot of old pilots on the field...this confusion in the air is very concerning. Its just my feeling that the tower should have some ability to be sure this doesnt happen...end of day, they have the most situational awareness in the pattern.

This is why I built my own adsb reciever when I was a flight instructor. Fly defensively, never assume that the other pilot knows what they are doing. I almost had a collision with a 182 sky lane who not only reported his position incorrectly as upwind after I had already taken off, but was actually on an extended crosswind heading right towards me and my student. That was a very intense minute of visual scanning and ads-b usage to avoid that collision and I had to delay my climb in a wooded area and tell the sky lane twice to change course and enter the pattern over mid field.

Really sad accident. Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you for a clear, and concise explanation of this tragic situation.

This is the first I’ve heard of this crash. Great reminder on doing the belly checks, especially in parallel runway operations. Were there any survivors?

Truly how this stuff should be discussed and taught. Thank you.

Rest In Peace Tony. I was gobsmacked when I learned it was you. Lots of lessons both here in the video as well as what I hope all of us will remember about the brevity of life for us all. Sitting here back east thinking of you. I’ve also been thinking about their being two pilots in the other plane- and wondering why, since they obviously knew the field, why both of them missed clear instructions from the tower. This accident has hit me hard at several levels. RIP all.

Great analysis of a tragic accident. I fly from KVGT and will make belly check a standard practice.

Excellent discussion and presentation of the preliminary data. Thank you for this!

In addition to high-wing low and low-wing high, both planes' last spot on the tracking show the Malibu nearly double the 172's speed. It makes me wonder if it came in from far enough behind that the 172 could have had a hard time spotting it on the turn to final.

I’m from Coeur D Alene and have seen the Malibu in the traffic pattern often. One point that wasn’t mentioned here is the habit of making rounded pattern turns. Flight data presented here appears to show one single turn from downwind to final by the Piper.

Excellent analysis and recommendations!

Well done analysis. Tough scenario with bias being a possible contributor and a complacency from repetition a factor as well.

Excellent analysis. This channel is great.

These accidents repeat themselves often enough, that I'm surprised tower will turn 2 aircraft into final from opposite directions down parallel runways. It requires both pilots to not overshoot centre line, and/or have visual contact with each other. To stagger the turn into final so they're offset by a minute or so makes sense to me.

As always, excellent Assessment

Cessna was hit from behind! Nothing further he could have done to improve his position, other than staying on the ground. Prayers to all loveones involved!!

I caught that but also heard 172 on the audio say he had eyes on the traffic and should have kept the his eyes on traffic and extended his downwind to do so, and maybe have avoided the collision even if the piper was lined up on wrong runway..

Solid analysis. Thanks for the info. I'd be surprised if you didn't nail it.

Excellent analysis and presentation thank you. As a retired Air Traffic Controller, I take a special interest in accidents occuring in controlled airspace, especially in the traffic pattern.

What a concise presentation. Thank you.

I didn’t hear ATC warn about parallel landing traffic. Perhaps that might have helped.

82 year old pilot of the Piper Malibu. Female passenger doing radio work.

Richard will be sorely missed - his quiet analysis of events like this help pilots both in real life and simmulation to get themselves organised before taking to the air. That really does make a difference.

Awesome video. Thanks so much 👍👍👍🛩️🛩️

Another excellent video.

Thanks for the content. I would remind myself that overshoot resulted by crosswind could lead to hazardous situation as well.

Such a great video, Im based out KVGT and had just left the airport 10 min before this occurred. Frustrating as about 5 yrs VGT removed the approach into the 30s and are only available from the other side on the 12s. Belly checks will be something that is now a common practice for myself as I fly a low wing and have flown this exact route many times into VGT and is an extremely common route for student pilot solos. Nellis AFB Tracon guides them in from the East down to 3500ft, fly over field and dropped into the downwind. It can be a busy airspaces and the controllers are excellent there. Sad to see this tragic event but much can be learned from this to prevent accidents in the future,

As always, great analysis ASI team! You are saving lives every day by reinforcing critical concepts and procedures through your professional analysis.

Man, I just did training out of that airport during a business trip about a month ago. That is some crazy busy airspace. So sad for all involved.

“Wrong Surface Event” = Think Harrison Ford…

1:57 That UNKOWN caller killed his friend pilot by distracting her... And now he is the reason for the accident altogether... Wow.

Why perform a constant left turn to join the final? Join the downwind and make sure your setting yourself up for the correct runway... Very sad.

Carol was 76. Her passenger (co-pilot?) was 82. Not saying age was a factor but put that together with parallel offset runways and flying an arc-ing approach as opposed to flying a distinct downwind, base and final. Would have had more time to identify both runways and perhaps land on the correct one.

My heart really sank with that double check from the tower that it was the left runway. Between this and the (amazingly) non-fatal collision at Centennial about a year ago, it really looks as though GA/VFR type parallel runway operations require some changes to improve safety.

Sincere best wishes to the victims and their familes. I live in here in Henderson right next to the Henderson / Las Vegas Executive Airport and we were all shocked by this. Our airport has multiple high-traffic / tight-turn approaches. Sometimes you wonder how these collisions don't happen more often, though I am certainly glad they are rare. Hopefully once the official investigation is completed, you will do a full-lenth accident case study on this. These videos prevent accidents and save lives.

Awesome analysis

Really good video and especially good commentator. Keep him for more videos.

Lv and Nlv are my old stomping grounds. Summer time over Vegas can have it's own set of issues. There is generally a smog layer, heat distortion and particularly nasty thermals to make flying a light aircraft more difficult.

I was at the field that day for a checkride, it was so unnerving to be that close to a fatal accident. I was waiting ardently for a video regarding this accident to be released by the Air Safety Institute. The best way to honor those that were lost is to learn all we can from the events that took place, so that it may never happen again.

Horrible tragic accident that should have never happened. As a 2+ decade COM-CFII, my thinking is that the tower controller should have issued a caution to the Malibu pilot such as this: "N7CX - caution...Cessna traffic turning base-to-final on the parallel runway 30R.....report traffic in sight." A caution such as this could have saved 4 lives.

Thanks!

I did some pre-solo flights at KLUK. It has 21L & R, and 25. My first time in the pattern for 21L I saw 25 straight in front of me during my base leg. I got confused and started heading towards 25. Fortunately my instructor was anticipating this and said it was a common student mistake. Makes you appreciate how easily this can happen, and how important situational awareness is. I had my heading bug set for 21 but I didn't verify it.

Any chance we could get some analysis from you on the crash of N8488L on Sept 13, 2020 (NTSB #: CEN20LA392)? As a pilot in the local area who frequently flies out of the same airport I'm interested in what exactly happened and what can be learned from the incident, but even reading through what NTSB info I can find still leaves me stumped as to what happened. Thanks!

Would be great to hear the complete ATC audio. This seems to be another classic mistake of Tower not telling the person in the Malibu that another plane was on approach to the parallel runway. That would’ve given the Malibu pilot more concern to be cautious and look for that pilot. Not this is completely Tower’s fault of course. The Malibu crossed over the airport at 900 feet going 147 knots. They crashed one minute later in a very tight entry circle in high density altitude 100°F weather do ground speed was high. The Malibu pilot executed a rapid circular descent, misjudged and overshot their turn by going to fast. They should’ve done a standard downwind, base and final. They crash at the near the runway threshold going 118 knots. The Malibu specs appear to recommend retracting landing gear at 126 kn when they put their first flaps in. They reached that speed at 200 AGL only 7 secs before collision during their very tight turn base to final, according to the ground track image provided in the video.

When there is parallel runway like in KSNA the tower ALWAYS asks at least one of the airplane if they have the other in approach in sight/visual contact. If the tower had done that this could have been avoided.

Cockpit complacency and possibly controller complacency may very well be one of the root causes of this accident. It can happen to any pilot anytime, from low timers to 10000+ hour pilots. I learned this very early in my flying when I took my instrument checkride. The examiner informed me that we would have to do the ILS approach through clouds and asked me to call Center for a clearance while we were in a hold. Center reported the field VFR and asked me to call the tower. Tower said the field was VFR and get my clearance from the center. After several back and forths, I got a clearance to the on field VOR, then fly the full procedure which included a compass locator as an initial/final approach fix. I departed the hold for the VOR and as the ADF needle began to swing the examiner blew a gasket and asked me in no uncertain terms where I thought I was going. I replied to the VOR. He grabbed the approach chart, pointed at it and said, "No No NO NO! NO!! The IAF is the locator!" I informed him that we were cleared to the VOR on an ATC assigned clearance and that's what we had to do. He was even more unhappy with me. Not knowing what else to do, I called the center, by now unhappy with us too and asked to reconfirm the clearance. It was as I told him to the VOR, fly the full procedure, report the VOR outbound. The examiner was silent until we were cleared for the low approach when he said, land the airplane, which we did. In his office I got a lengthy lecture on the evils of cockpit complacency and if it could happen to a 10000 hour designated pilot examiner, it can happen to anyone and don't ever let it happen to you. He added that he had flown that approach hundreds of times and had never received that clearance. I asked if I could complete the check ride. He handed me my instrument rating and congratulated me on flying the airplane despite a raving distraction from the right seat.

Modern cockpits allow pilots to input and follow a “Visual Approach”. I do this on my 750…input and confirm L or R for 31 / 13 at Palm Springs. There, the traffic you might collide with is mostly 737 airliners. So being vigilant is even more important.

Spent several days flying out of North Las Vegas Airport in the '90s. Then it was super busy, with thousands of operations per day, due to all the tourist scenic flights. They have an air terminal just for this purpose that is larger than many city airports. This is not an airport I would care to spend much student time circling the "race track." In general the Las Vegas metro airspace is an intense, tiring experience for non-locals. And the routes to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam are so busy you feel like a B-17 pilot entering German territory. Luckily being a Vietnam combat veteran has made me hyper vigilant. Especially on the Las Vegas freeways, where I've have more close calls than years of flying : -)

Rip Amen 🙏. Thank you friend for this educational video.

There are a lot of unanswered questions here and many have already addressed a lot of the possible causes. As a retired air traffic controller I wonder if the tower exchanged traffic information to the Piper and Cessna? Advising the instructional pattern aircraft of the inbound Piper to the parallel runway and vice versa should have occurred. I don’t know if it did but that certainly could have helped prevent this accident.

Where is the communications from tower to each pilots alerting them of traffic on the parallel runways and do they have the other traffic in sight?

Did tower or any ATC notify both pilots of the other’s presence? Do these aircraft have means other than eyeballs to detect presence of others?

Where can I find a piper model like he is using in the video

North Las Vegas -KVGT was rated as one of the most dangerous general aviation airports and when I lived in the NW part of Las Vegas, sheer amateur hour above especially by the "Sunday flyers". I presume that they moved the power lines about a decade ago? With recent changes in flight patterns, I predict that there will be a crash sooner or later over Centennial Hills/Lone Mountain.

Impeccable analysis by McSpadden and a tragedy regardless. Interesting that this might be less likely to occur at an uncontrolled field with pilots calling their turns. I'm always on edge in parallel or simultaneous ops environments. I spend a lot of time using grass "alternate landing areas" alongside asphalt runways and have seen conflicts arise over who thinks they have the active.

Very well presented! Do we know if the Malibu's radio coms were from its PIC? Makes me think maybe not?

Good analysis of what may have happened. I'm a little surprised that the controller didn't advise the Malibu about the 172 doing touch and goes.

Was there any other traffic in the pattern?

While flying within 10 miles of your destination or departure airport, adjust ADS-B in resolution to 10 miles or less so aircraft within airport’s traffic pattern can be monitored. I fly at an airport (KSFF) with offset parallel runways. When another aircraft is cleared to land on the other runway, a visual check for the other aircraft is in order. I fly a Cessna 150 so pilot demand on final is rather low and allows for time to be defensive.

My take away was the call out from the another pilot (not involved in the accident) just as the Malibu is entering the pattern. I don’t feel that’s appropriate. It takes your attention off your task. If the Malibu normally lands on R and has there mind on answering the call out, and not on task at hand, it sets up for disastrous events. Stay professional and talk on the ground.

I'm always leery about parallel runway operations. Two observations. After crossing mid-field, the approach to 30L by the Malibu is sloppy. In general, if I join the pattern I would establish a proper downwind and base leg. On base I would definitely have my lights on (which may or may not make my aircraft more visible to approaching traffic). In addition, executing this kind of approach means the pilot is relatively busy and may be cutting procedural corners in order to get down. Maybe I'm being unfair and others would disagree, but it seems to me the Malibu pilot took unnecessary risks.The second observation pertains to calling traffic. Yes, I know you might overhear the conversations and surmise there's converging traffic for the other runway, but having the tower call traffic is more explicit and might've helped both pilots see and avoid. Did the tower call traffic? I have no idea. But what I do know is that if I'm practicing patterns I would likely extend the downwind leg had traffic been called. Frankly, it's something the tower might've considered too. I'm interested to know what other pilots think and what their reasoning would be.

As a low time pilot I am putting all the advice by other pilots and putting them in my toolbox. I can't help but wonder if both planes were using a platform like Foreflight, with traffic alerts. This feature is so helpful to me for situational awareness. I never go up without it, even when staying in the pattern.

Did my check ride in 160RA have about 50 hours in that plane. RIP, this one hit super close to home.

This type of accident is exactly why I hung up my headset 10 years ago after two traffic pattern near misses. Pilot in command is responsible for getting the plane to the proper runway/surface. The Tower controller is NOT the voice asking "where you coming from Carol?" You can do all the belly checks you want but if someone is lazy/sloppy with their basic pattern maneuvering, that every pilot learns from day one, you are at the mercy of God.

Offset runways, it is easy to glom on to the closest runway because you see it first. Doesn't even have to be the same airport. Biggs AAF and ELP, for example. This one and now Watsonville. Sad. Been flying for 55 years and still, traffic patterns and entries get my attention the most. Nice job again, Boss.

It'll never cease to amaze me when this sort of thing happens. Aaaaaaaall that space in the sky and two craft just happen to be in the same place at the same time. Just SECONDs sooner or later and it would have likely been nothing more than a terrifying close call. Tragic.

On this airport are runways i.d.ed by transponders or by visual only? Was there equipment failure or pilot error only? I'm not a pilot but it seems to me that this style of runway design could be partly to blame.

Honestly lots of times I have to really think hard what is left and what is right. I’ve even got reciprocal runways mixed up.. partly because of the way the heading is presented on the DG/HSI vs how they are numbered on the runway. (EI 36 is at bottom of the runway but top of the DG). For takeoff I always set my bug to make sure it’s the correct runway and verify it before rolling. Landing and circuits I’d usually set front course on the HSI. This of course doesn’t help with parallel runways, so I’d set localizer to make sure I was lined up. For airports without a localizer or instrument approach, I select a runway and final offset in the FMS. Most GPSs and Foreflight as well have this option and I highly recommend using it. Foreflight even has a voice message telling you what final you are entering (also does for crossing active runways). I verify the runway when I’m handed over to approach or tower to make sure what’s entered matches what I’ve been assigned.

I can't imagine it not being exactly why and how you described it. If you fly enough, you'll have "whoops" moments. Some are lessons, others are unforgiving. All it takes is once, in a split second. It could be any of us, regardless of experience.

I fly out of KDPA and this type of mistake is easy to make, especially if you are use to taking off And landing in one direction primarily, then need to switch directions because of wind or other traffic. When the parallel runways are in service, the controller usually cautions both pilots for parallel landing traffic. Did that occur here?

Would this be a good case for always using instruments to augment VFR approaches? If the Malibu had the ILS (or GPS-based virtual ILS) entered and showing on her instruments, the pilot would have noticed the deviation from the correct runway.

To reinforce what Mr. Vaughn Mickelson and other said, it is very instinctive once you visually acquire a runway, to try to land on that runway. I had the same experience landing at Manassas (KHEF). Was cleared to land on 34L. When turning left base, the first runway you see is 34R which is about 2,500 ft longer than 34L. I started to go for 34R when realized it was the wrong runway. I was able to correct before crossing the center line but had a scare that has lasted to this day.

Probably doesn't affect the accident, but the airplane is a Jetprop conversion with a PT6 turboprop (as evidenced by the picture in this video and by the cruise altitude & speed of the ADS-B track) even though the FAA registry isn't updated to show an engine change. Was it a recent change, and if so could that have put the pilot behind the airplane?

Is there a database with photographs of approaches so the pilots can have a better idea of what to expect as far as what's out the window? If possible, is it safer to shoot an ILS approach even in VMC, or to at least used the ILS on a visual approach to confirm you are on the correct runway and on approach. What about using a GPS approach?

I’m leaning more into overshooting final. The runways at KVGT are very easy to distinguish, specially if you are a local pilot, therefore it seems hard to line up on the wrong runway, specially since you typically seldom land on the North runway unless you are parking up north or doing pattern work. You can see how tight of a pattern the Meridian flew, could there have been some wind from the south pushing the plane into the other runway, I didn’t look at the ATIS for that day? There was also an Extra coming in for landing behind the Meridian, could that have compeled the pilot to expedite their approach? Also, what seat was the pilot flying in, if they were in the right seat, it would have made it more difficult to realized they turn down wind a little close.

I began training at KVGT for my private. There are a lot of close calls for sure. I wish they would extend the delta airspace more on the south side of the airfield into the bravo. It’s a tight area for several airplanes coming into to parallel runways. Especially because there are many new student pilots.

I think there are a couple of points missing in this conversation.... One item is that (although likely the ATC audio is not complete here), was there any "traffic" exchanged from ATC to either aircraft about each other? The Malibu did not fly a "standard" pattern entry, nor "standard" box pattern, rather it appears they flew an unnecessary (IMO) fighter type overhead/letdown. I don't see that type of maneuver in the AIM or 7110.65, but I do see "crosswind", "downwind", "base", etc. to describe patterns and how they should be flown. The controller appeared to think something was not going well, and restated the landing runways when maybe he should have been issuing traffic, or traffic alert. The ATC conversation should have included; point of pattern entry (if not otherwise coordinated), reporting point (for landing clearance), traffic on the Cessna (for awareness of both), and the landing runway. The landing runway was restated several times, but that's not what killed them all. The aircraft collided because 1) neither appeared to be aware of each other, 2) the Malibu flew a sloppy pattern and got wide into the Cessna, and 3) ATC didn't have the foresight (which is about 99% of what ATC is all about) to see this coming and when he did, he did not follow basic controlling rules to sort any of this out in time.

I think perpendicularly overflying the runways at > 500 ft TPA then continuing flying perpendicular straight out away from the airfield, making a slow right-handed descent in a right teardrop into a 45 degree entry into the left downwind for both runways before turning left base gives you: 1. Time to slow your KIAS down to pattern speed. 2. Time to scan for traffic during your right turn teardrop. 3. Time to descend to TPA coming into the 45 degree entry into the left downwind. 4. Time for tower to confirm LEFT runway cleared to land once again while you are still entering on the 45 degree into the left downwind.

Perhaps ATC letting each other know there was an airplane landing in the other runway at the same time would have helped?

Paint each parallel runway with big colored dots -- one runway orange, the other runway sky blue. (Oshkosh runways have such big colored dots although they serve a different purpose.)

One observation left out of the analysis, the low wing aircraft was much faster than the high wing. So while high wing was already established on final, the low wing rolled out above and behind it. While low wing was banking left, it really should have been able to see the Cessna but obviously did not.

The radio comms of the Piper were from the lady "passenger"presumably not the PIC. I think crew resource management is another variable in the safety perspective. She heard left runway and confirmed it twice but the ADSB does not show the pilot make any correction away from right runway. I wonder why/if she didn't stress the overshoot situation to the pilot.

I’m never going to fly but I still watch these videos as if I’m a pilot or something

Is it possible to stagger the approaches by ATC by asking one or the other to extend downwind to get a safety margin in case of misalignment to the correct runway?

Are there 2 different Tower frequencies for 30R and 30L? If it was a single tower freq, I'm wondering why the pilots didn't have situational awareness of the parallel runway traffic. Sometimes the Tower would even advise and require the both landing aircraft has visual on one another. At least that how they do it at KSNA.

Hères a thought , why dont ntsb have left runway markings Green and right runways in réd? To me making both red adds to the confusion.