GAA16CA070 · Stinson 108 UNDESIGNAT
Stinson 108 UNDESIGNAT · Accident: runway excursion during landing
From Harper Municipal Airport (8K2) to Sharon, KS
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA070
- 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
Stinson 108 UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Stinson 108
- 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
- N97537
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harper Municipal Airport (8K2), Harper, KSTo Sharon, KS
- 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
- Landing · aborted after touchdown
- 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
- Runway excursion
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that during the landing roll on a rough grass private strip, the airplane impacted a "little bump" and became airborne. He reported that he elected to abort the landing due to the end of the runway and trees that were "coming up pretty fast".
The pilot further reported that he knew the airplane would not be able to climb and turn at the same time due to the low airspeed. He elected to turn right, and subsequently impacted a fence post with the right wing strut. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings, and the fuselage.
According to the pilot there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to continue the unstabilized approach and landing and his delayed decision to go around with an insufficient climb rate, which resulted with collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA070
- Event ID
- 20151207X30322
- Case number
- GAA16CA070
- 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: 785a7da8449976705805888a497b969608ae420ba9307979e6fd9a68451acdc5; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:00:52.049Z.