What happened
During an evacuation from Borinquen, Puerto Rico, to Curacao, two U.S. Customs Service aircraft were flying in a formation pattern to avoid an approaching hurricane. While cruising at 6,500 feet MSL, the aircraft with registration N6305U moved toward the lead aircraft, N6ly02W, for the purpose of capturing photographs. During this maneuver, the right side of the vertical stabilizer on N6305U struck the left side of the nose of N6302W.
Following the impact, the crew of N6305U attempted to land on short final approach at an airstrip, but the aircraft became uncontrollable and was ditched. The lead aircraft, N6302W, was able to return to Borinquen and land safely without further incident. There were no fatalities reported in the accident.
Findings
Investigations revealed that the crew members of both aircraft had been instructed to fly as a flight of two prior to departure. However, the second-in-command pilots on both flights had not received any prior training in formation flying, and such maneuvers had not been authorized for the mission. The incident was precipitated by unauthorized formation maneuvers for photography purposes.