GAA16CA170
2016-03-29 · Ridgeland, South Carolina, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport 3J1
Current FAA registration · N744H
- Make / Model
- WACO CTO
- Engine
- WRIGHT 760E-2 (350 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 3 seats · 1 engine
- Last airworthiness date
- 19860619
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S AA0215
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll, which resulted in a ground loop.
Factual narrative
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped bi-plane reported that during the landing roll, the bi-plane started turning to the right, the left main landing gear collapsed, and the nose of the bi-plane impacted the ground. The bi-plane sustained substantial damage to the left lower wing. According to the pilot there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped bi-plane reported that during the landing roll, the bi-plane started turning to the right, the left main landing gear collapsed, and the nose of the bi-plane impacted the ground. The bi-plane sustained substantial damage to the left lower wing. According to the pilot 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 Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Directional control-Not attained/maintained - C
- C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2016_GAA16CA170.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.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
- NTSB Docket Agency ↗
- Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗
- Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗
- Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗
- AVweb Aviation press ↗
- Pilots of America Community ↗
- Reddit /r/flying Community ↗
- FlightAware Aviation press ↗
- AOPA accident database Aviation press ↗
- Google News News ↗
- DuckDuckGo News ↗
Related research
Matched on aircraft type. All research papers
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint Trajectory Bundle Method in SE(3) for Black-Box Fixed-Wing Aircraft Trajectory Optimization
Dynamically feasible trajectory optimization for rigid-body systems is naturally formulated on the special Euclidean group SE(3) but is challenging when dynamics are available only as black-box comput…
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint ETA Coordination at UAM Corridor Merging Points Using Worst-Case and Stochastic Trajectory Bounds
We study an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA)-based traffic-coordination framework for Urban Air Mobility corridors with merging at constrained waypoints (CWPs), where approved ETAs at CWPs serve as Req…
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint Obstacle-Aware Four-Dimensional Trajectory Design for Urban Air Mobility
Urban Air Mobility (UAM) with electric Vertical TakeOff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles can help address ground traffic congestion.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint Coordinated Incremental Trajectory Tracking of a Tailsitter Drone
This paper derives an analytical differential flatness transform for a tailsitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) under coordinated flight conditions using a simplified aerodynamic model.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint Diffusion-based 4D Trajectory Prediction and Distributed Control for UAV Swarms
Accurate 4D trajectory prediction and closed-loop tracking are essential for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) swarms to achieve safe and efficient operations in complex low-altitude environments such as …
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint Scalable Online Flight Trajectory Optimization via Sequential Quadratic Programming for Urban Air Mobility in Ultra Low-Altitude Airspace
As Urban Air Mobility (UAM) scales toward high-density operations, generating collision-free trajectories within complex 3D cityscapes is a critical safety requirement.