CHI06LA278 · Piper PA-18A-150
Piper PA-18A-150 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during landing
From Lawrenceville Vincennes International Airport (LWV) to Lawrenceville Vincennes International Airport (LWV)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI06LA278
- 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
Piper PA-18A-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N9779D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lawrenceville Vincennes International Airport (LWV)To Lawrenceville Vincennes International Airport (LWV)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Traffic advisory, not received
- Pilot in command › Visual separation, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The tow airplane was returning to the uncontrolled airport after releasing a glider that was operated by a soaring club. The pilot of the tow airplane stated that he entered the traffic pattern to land on runway 27 and saw another aircraft taking off from runway 27. The pilot of the tow airplane decided to continue the approach and to land on the grass next to runway 27. After he touched down, he observed a glider attempting to land in the opposite direction. The glider pilot appeared to overshoot the centerline and was heading for the tow airplane. The tow airplane pilot turned right towards the runway to avoid the glider, but the glider turned towards him. The tow airplane pilot turned back to the left and impacted a runway sign. According to the Airport Facility Directory, runway 27 had the same traffic pattern for engine-driven aircraft and gliders. The tow pilot stated that he did not hear any radio transmissions from the glider on the LWV common traffic advisory frequency.
Probable cause
The visual separation from the glider attempted by the tow pilot and traffic advisories from the glider not received by the tow pilot. The airport sign/marker was a contributing factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI06LA278
- Event ID
- 20061117X01688
- Case number
- CHI06LA278
- 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: b19e3b75b5420783134c62aedf6eaf97225ea9a150a40c5ca9152c738c9cf6b2; retrieved 2026-09-22T04:46:14.320Z.