GAA16CA058 · Cessna 172 L
Aims Community College Cessna 172 L and Piper J3C 65 · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA058
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172 L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N4256Q
- Operator
- Aims Community College
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, COTo Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 44 years (built 1971)
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Ground collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Piper J3C 65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N70522
- Operator
- Belleau, James R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, COTo Greeley–Weld County Airport (GXY), Greeley, CO
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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 visual reference
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot of tandem cockpit, tailwheel-equipped Piper airplane, which he was operating from the rear seat, while taxiing to the runway his forward visibility was diminished by his airplane's nose, requiring the use of "S" turns in order to clear the area in front of the airplane. He reported that a Cessna airplane was in front of his airplane, and taxiing to the runway as well. He remarked that he and the Cessna were holding on the taxiway momentarily in order to monitor and give way to arriving and departing traffic. He reported that the Cessna moved forward, and he followed, but while entering the "S" turn, he lost sight of the Cessna. He remarked that he abruptly applied the right brake in order to avoid a collision, and his left wing impacted the Cessna's rudder.
The pilot of the Cessna reported that during his taxi to the runway, his airplane was struck from behind by the Piper airplane. Both pilots shut down their airplanes, assessed the damage and exchanged information. The Cessna sustained substantial damage to the rudder, while the Piper sustained minor damage to the left wing.
Both pilots reported that there were no mechanical failures or anomalies prior to or during the flight that would have prevented normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot of the following airplane failed to maintain adequate spacing during the taxi to the runway, resulting in a collision with the lead airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA058
- Event ID
- 20151123X43413
- Case number
- GAA16CA058
- 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: investigation status. 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: bc61dd0960bc9c059120171ca3f0aa383ad4098e62e1df8a33051d0fa08907f0; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:24:37.132Z.