NTSB CAROL · Event
Event GAA16CA024
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's use of excessive brake input during the recovery from the ground loop, which resulted in a nose over.
Factual narrative
The pilot reported that after the touchdown, right rudder and brake was applied to counter a ground loop. He reported that the ground loop was prevented but the airplane nosed over as a result of the brake input. A postflight inspection revealed substantial damage to the fuselage, the right wing support strut, and the empennage. The pilot reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported as a safety recommendation, for "more judicious use of brakes in the future." The pilot reported that after the touchdown, right rudder and brake was applied to counter a ground loop. He reported that the ground loop was prevented but the airplane nosed over as a result of the brake input. A postflight inspection revealed substantial damage to the fuselage, the right wing support strut, and the empennage. The pilot reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
- C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Aircraft capability-Braking capability-Incorrect use/operation - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2015_GAA16CA024.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Quantum Machine Learning for UAV Swarm Intrusion Detection
Intrusion detection in unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) swarms is complicated by high mobility, non-stationary traffic, and severe class imbalance.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
Automatic Control With Human-Like Reasoning: Exploring Language Model Embodied Air Traffic Agents
Recent developments in language models have created new opportunities in air traffic control studies. The current focus is primarily on text and language-based use cases.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
Mechanisms of de-icing by surface Rayleigh and plate Lamb acoustic waves
Acoustic waves (AW) have recently emerged as an energy-efficient ice removal procedure compatible with functional and industrial-relevant substrates.
- NASA NTRS 2024 · Presentation
Investigating the Causes and Consequences of Controlled Rest on the Flight Deck
INTRODUCTION: Long and irregular working hours can lead to fatigue in aviation operations. In some regions, a short nap taken on the flight deck (known as controlled rest) can be used as a countermeas…
- NASA NTRS 2024 · Presentation
The Impact of Controlled Rest on Neurobehavioral Outcomes at Top-of-Descent
INTRODUCTION: Long and irregular working hours can lead to fatigue in aviation operations. In some regions, a short nap taken on the flight deck (known as controlled rest) can be used as a countermeas…
- NASA NTRS 2023 · Technical Memorandum (TM)
Safety Case for Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Operations at NASA Langley Research Center
This Technical Memorandum (TM) is written to provide for dissemination of the methods and safety considerations for operations of small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (sUAS) Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLO…
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗