GAA15CA193 · Luscombe 8A
Luscombe 8A · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Green Castle Airport (IA24) to Green Castle Airport (IA24)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA15CA193
- 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
Luscombe 8A
- Aircraft type
- Luscombe 8
- 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
- N45508
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Green Castle Airport (IA24), Oxford, IATo Green Castle Airport (IA24), Oxford, IA
- Aircraft age
- About 69 years (built 1946)
- 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during takeoff, he applied full power and the airplane reached rotation speed. After liftoff, the airplane reached a height of about three or four feet and settled back to the runway. The airplane veered left, exited the runway, impacted a ditch, and came to rest inverted in a field. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and wings.
The pilot reported the airplane was near maximum gross takeoff weight and he should have calculated density altitude before the flight. The pilot also stated he should have built up more speed before rotation.
Weather about the time of the accident was reported as 82 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was 250 degrees at 4 knots. The calculated density altitude was 2,923 feet. The airport elevation is 750 feet and the runway heading was reported as 150 degrees true.
The pilot initiated the takeoff roll from a 1,400 foot turf runway that adjoined a 2600 foot asphalt runway.
The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for takeoff based on the runway and density altitude conditions, which resulted in a runway excursion and impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA15CA193
- Event ID
- 20150722X71220
- Case number
- GAA15CA193
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2015-07-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 608d14aad8f976fc002662e4eb58d9432d654acf5c7c5d862ffb67ba0b033556; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:33:42.111Z.