IAD03CA057 · Boeing A75N1(PT17)
Boeing A75N1(PT17) · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From Braxton County Airport (48I) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD03CA057
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Boeing A75N1(PT17)
- Aircraft type
- Boeing A75
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N55175
- Operator
- Worden L. Mccalum · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Braxton County Airport (48I), Braxton County, WVTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was concerned with the field elevation, airplane weight, heat, and humidity before the flight. During the takeoff roll, the airplane had a slower acceleration and longer takeoff roll than normal. The pilot considered aborting the takeoff twice, but was concerned that there was not enough available runway to land, and felt that he would be able to out climb the terrain located at the end of the runway. After bouncing twice on the runway, the airplane began to climb in ground effect, about 100 feet per minute. When the pilot realized that he would not clear the terrain, he lowered the nose in an attempt to gain airspeed. He located an area of lower terrain, made a shallow right turn, and attempted to fly through the area; however, the airplane sank into the trees and rolled. The pilot stated that the engine sounded as if it was producing full power, and that he was unfamiliar with the airplane's high density altitude performance capabilities.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to abort the takeoff in a timely manner. Factors included the high density altitude conditions, and the pilot's lack of familiarity with the airplane's high density altitude performance characteristics.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD03CA057
- Event ID
- 20030819X01351
- Case number
- IAD03CA057
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d5d9beb278ebe8c3c09b2d60e0271521e0d426d8c931c816a5f373ce41b8400b; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:27:10.071Z.