Says Race Aircraft Were Landing Separately

The National Transportation Safety Board released Wednesday its Preliminary Report on last Friday's tragic landing accident at Wittman Field in Oshkosh, WI during AirVenture 2007.

As ANN reported, pilot Gerard Beck was killed when his P-51A -- which he built himself, using North American's original plans and blueprints -- struck the tail of a P-51D that had just touched down on runway 36 at Wittman Field. Both aircraft had participated in a simulated air race demonstration.

The prelim -- which follows, unedited but for formatting, below -- notes the aircraft were not attempting a formation landing, as many had speculated. Rather, it appears Beck may not have seen the P-51D's location on the runway, resulting in the landing collision.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On July 27, 2007, at 1519 central daylight time, a North American P51-D, Mustang, N151RJ, sustained substantial damage during landing when it was struck in the empennage and fuselage by an amateur-built Beck P-51A, Mustang, N8082U. N151RJ had just landed on runway 36 (8,002 feet by 150 feet, grooved concrete) at the Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and was starting its landing roll when N8082U struck its empennage and fuselage.

The collision with N8082U pushed N151RJ onto its nose, and N151RJ subsequently skidded down the runway and came to rest about 788 feet from the initial impact point. N8082U was still airborne at the time of the collision, and it rolled over to the right of the aft fuselage of N151RJ and impacted the terrain in a wings level, inverted attitude. The pilot in N151RJ was not injured, and the pilot in N8082U received fatal injuries.

Both Mustang airplanes departed from OSH as part of a five-aircraft air race demonstration event at the EAA AirVenture 2007 air show. The demonstration air race was completed and the five aircraft were in the process of landing separately, and not in formation, on runway 36.

Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.

(Image courtesy of Andrew Pappas)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov