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CHI07CA230 · Gulfstream-Schweizer Gulfstream AM G-164B

23 Jul 2007 · Walnut Ridge, AR, United States

Gulfstream-Schweizer Gulfstream AM G-164B · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff

From Walnut Ridge, AR (private airstrip) to Private airstrip

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Event

NTSB case
CHI07CA230
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

Gulfstream-Schweizer Gulfstream AM G-164B

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
N8402K
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Walnut Ridge, AR (private airstrip)To Private airstrip
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 137: Agricultural
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
Takeoff
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
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 › Planning/decision, improper

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The agricultural airplane impacted terrain during takeoff from runway 18 (2,200 feet long, asphalt/gravel). The pilot stated that prior to the aerial application flight, the airplane was loaded with about 500 lbs of fuel and 2,700 lbs of urea. The takeoff weight was about 7,600 lbs. The maximum demonstrated gross weight for the restricted category airplane was 8,300 lbs. The pilot reported that the wind was approximately "10-12 mph" out of the north and that he performed a "straight downwind takeoff" using full engine power. Halfway down the runway, the pilot "knew [he] was in trouble" and decided to dump the agricultural load. He stated that when the airplane got to the end of the runway, it hit a levee and pitched to a nose high attitude. When the pilot lowered the nose, the airplane "mushed down, losing airspeed." The airplane then impacted terrain tail first, nosed over, and came to rest upside down. Wind conditions reported near the time of the accident were 010 degrees at 8 knots.

Probable cause

The pilot's improper decision to takeoff with a tailwind which resulted in a collision with terrain immediately after liftoff. Factors contributing to the accident were the tailwind and the levee.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI07CA230
Event ID
20070810X01167
Case number
CHI07CA230
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: eadd428dd463d507ab5526902e04daa4b47487e5220aeb310e565c1045ada693; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:26:25.744Z.