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GAA16CA233

2016-05-15 · St. George, Utah, United States · None · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed

Airport SGU

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll, which resulted in a runway excursion, ground loop, right main landing gear collapse, and substantial damage to the right wing.

Factual narrative

The pilot of a tailwheel-equipped airplane reported about 4 seconds into the landing roll the airplane veered to the left despite full rudder deflection applied to the right. The pilot further reported that he added power to correct for the deviation, but the airplane continued to the left, departed the runway, and ground looped. During the ground loop, the right main landing gear collapsed and the right wing was substantially damaged. The pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot of a tailwheel-equipped airplane reported about 4 seconds into the landing roll the airplane veered to the left despite full rudder deflection applied to the right. The pilot further reported that he added power to correct for the deviation, but the airplane continued to the left, departed the runway, and ground looped. During the ground loop, the right main landing gear collapsed and the right wing was substantially damaged. The pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane 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_GAA16CA233.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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Related research

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