GAA16CA090 · Stinson 108 1
Stinson 108 1 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Portales Municipal Airport (PRZ) to Portales Municipal Airport (PRZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA090
- 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 1
- 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
- N97411
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portales Municipal Airport (PRZ), Portales, NMTo Portales Municipal Airport (PRZ), Portales, NM
- 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
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor, seated in the right seat, was providing tail-wheel flight instruction in an airplane equipped with wheel brakes only accessible to the pilot in the left seat. The flight instructor reported that he demonstrated the first landing to the pilot receiving instruction in the left seat. During the landing roll, he reported that he began to lose rudder effectiveness and the airplane started to veer to the right, so he applied full power to abort the landing.
The flight instructor further reported that during the aborted landing, the pilot receiving instruction applied both toe brakes at the moment full power was applied. The flight instructor attempted to maintain directional control, but the left wing impacted the runway and the airplane veered off the runway to the left. The flight instructor reduced the power to idle and the airplane stopped in the terrain adjacent to the runway. The left wing and left aileron were substantially damaged.
The pilot receiving instruction reported that he remained clear of the flight controls and brakes during the landing roll. He reported that he applied brakes only after the runway excursion to the left, after the flight instructor had reduced power to idle during the aborted landing. The flight instructor and pilot receiving instruction reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Postaccident photos revealed deceleration skid marks leading off the runway first to the right, and additional deceleration skid marks about 550 feet further down the runway leading off to the left into the grass.
The flight instructor reported the automated weather observing system about the time of the accident reported wind from 220 degrees true at 10 knots, which resulted in a 5 knot crosswind.
Probable cause
The pilot receiving instruction's improper brake application during the flight instructor's aborted landing, which resulted in a loss of directional control and a runway excursion. Contributing to the accident was the flight instructor's decision to perform flight training in an airplane without dual-equipped wheel brakes.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA090
- Event ID
- 20151229X10343
- Case number
- GAA16CA090
- 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, 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: d3a90d22f2f469b982122e76c2f65704961f60de2c7787597b4e8e2d14af92e6; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:03:33.534Z.