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Atlas / NTSB / GAA19CA018

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event GAA19CA018

2018-10-07 Manchester, West Virginia, United States Airport · 7G1 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N49WV

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-16

Year of manufacture

1949 · 69 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-290 SERIES (140 hp)

Seats / Engines

4 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19800806

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A60FC7

Registrant of record

OLEARY TIMOTHY M

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

A vehicle's incursion onto an active runway, which resulted in an evasive action by the pilot landing an airplane on that runway and a subsequent runway excursion.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the tailwheel equipped airplane reported that, while on final approach, he noticed a vehicle stopped short of the runway, on a road that intersects the runway. After touchdown, while taxiing, about 40 feet from the intersection, the vehicle slowly drove on the runway and, to avoid the vehicle, the pilot veered the airplane left and the airplane exited the runway to the left on the adjacent field. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and firewall. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot added that he assumed that the driver had visual of the landing airplane. The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that, while on final approach, he noticed a vehicle stopped short of the runway on a road that intersected the runway. After touchdown, while taxiing and about 40 ft from the intersection, the vehicle slowly drove on the runway. The pilot veered the airplane left to avoid the vehicle, and the airplane exited the runway to the left. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and firewall. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot added that he assumed that the driver could see the landing airplane. 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 Environmental issues-Physical environment-Object/animal/substance-Ground vehicle-Effect on operation - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2018_GAA19CA018.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (runway excursion). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗