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GAA16CA164

2016-03-26 · Lake Dallas, Texas, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport 30F

N717SP has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BELL TEXTRON CANADA LTD 429, built 2024), which was not involved in this event.

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing in a crosswind, which resulted in a runway excursion and an impact with terrain.

Factual narrative

The pilot reported that during the landing touchdown with a crosswind, the tail of the airplane was "hit with a burst of strong wind" from a nearby lake. He reported that before being able to react, the wind blew the airplane off the left side of the runway. The nose wheel collapsed, the right main landing gear separated, and the airplane impacted terrain in a ditch. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot verified that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot reported that during the landing touchdown with a crosswind, the tail of the airplane was "hit with a burst of strong wind" from a nearby lake. He reported that before being able to react, the wind blew the airplane off the left side of the runway. The nose wheel collapsed, the right main landing gear separated, and the airplane impacted terrain in a ditch. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot verified that there were no preimpact 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

FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.

  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-Crosswind-Effect on operation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2016_GAA16CA164.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Search this event elsewhere

External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.

Related research

Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway excursion). All research papers