Preliminary report details Sept. 16 mid-air collision

It appears from a preliminary investigation that the Sept. 16 mid-air collision near Minden-Tahoe Airport occurred when the tail of a Swift aircraft was clipped by the propeller of a Civil Air Patrol Cessna.

The collision killed Swift pilot Donald Bartholomew.

The Swift’s tailwheel and parts of its mount were found lodged underneath the Cessna’s engine, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said in an initial report issued on Wednesday.

It wasn’t until investigators removed the Cessna’s engine that they found the tailwheel which showed the point of impact.

The pilots in the Cessna, told investigators that they never saw Bartholomew’s aircraft during the collision and thought instead that the propeller had failed.

The Cessna did lose a propeller blade with one portion found in the debris field and the tip lodged in the Cessna’s firewall, inches from the cockpit.

The main tail section of the Swift was located 450 feet from the rest of the wreckage, which was strewn over 1,025 feet intermingled with pieces of the Cessna and coated with red hydraulic oil from the Cessna’s propeller hub.

The main wreckage included the wings and front fuselage with fire damage to the cockpit and inboard wing where the fuel tanks are located.

The preliminary investigation describes what happened during the collision but does not conclude why it happened. Speculation is that the different wing configurations prevented the three occupants of the aircraft from spotting one another.

The Cessna was on a final approach for Minden Runway 34 at 9:44 a.m. Two minutes later, Bartholomew reported approaching the same runway. The Cessna pilot was giving an update at 9:46:36 a.m.

“It is presumed that the two airplanes collided during this transmission,” investigators said.

“A dashcam video from a driver heading north on (U.S. 395) showed the Swift crossing west over the (highway) and at a slightly higher altitude of the Cessna just prior to impact,” according to the report. “After impact, the Swift can be seen erupting in flames and falling near vertical to the fields below. It could not be definitively determined if the Swift made an evasive maneuver before the impact.”

A friend of Bartholomew’s told investigators that the long time Swift pilot was moving his airplane from the Pinenut Airport to Minden-Tahoe in anticipation of a storm.

“He described the pilot as being meticulous and would consistently follow the same routines during flights,” the report said.

The Swift was not equipped with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast and no radar data was available, so investigators recreated his route using previous flights conducted in the friend’s Swift and interviews.