GAA16CA106 · Piper PA 28RT-201 T
J. Linn Aviation Piper PA 28RT-201 T · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Mesquite Metro Airport (HQZ) to Mesquite Metro Airport (HQZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA106
- 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
Piper PA 28RT-201 T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2119N
- Operator
- J. Linn Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mesquite Metro Airport (HQZ), Mesquite, TXTo Mesquite Metro Airport (HQZ), Mesquite, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 37 years (built 1979)
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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 in flight
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 flight instructor reported that the private pilot receiving instruction was flying a simulated engine failure approach to an airport in gusty crosswind conditions. When the airplane approached 50 feet above the ground on final, the flight instructor called "go-around." He reported that the instructed pilot "simultaneously pulled back and went full throttle." The flight instructor stated that the airspeed was about 80 knots, and "the airplane fell straight to the ground" short of the runway. After the impact, the airplane bounced forward onto the runway, the left main landing gear collapsed, and the airplane departed the runway to the left about 550 feet from the runway threshold. The flight instructor reported that he verified that the throttle was full forward before the impact. A postaccident examination revealed substantial damage to the right wing.
The flight instructor reported there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airport Facility Directory, trees were listed as an obstacle for the runway used. About the time of the accident, 7 nautical miles southeast of the airport, an automated weather observing system reported wind from 190 true at 13 knots, gusting to 21 knots. The tree line was located upwind and parallel to the airplane's final approach.
The FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge describes effects of obstructions on wind. The handbook states, "It is especially important to be vigilant when flying in or out of airports that have large buildings or natural obstructions located near the runway." The handbook further states, "During the landing phase of flight, an aircraft may 'drop in' due to the turbulent air and be too low to clear obstacles during the approach."
Probable cause
The private pilot's exceedance of the airplane's critical angle-of-attack during a go-around in gusting crosswind conditions, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall and a collision with terrain short of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA106
- Event ID
- 20160120X44826
- Case number
- GAA16CA106
- 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: 67eda5ff426d3e965d9d81410b52fbe7d63503984bae431308b0df97f77ce48e; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:06:17.481Z.