GAA16CA121 · Glines Kenneth TAILWIND W 8
Glines Kenneth TAILWIND W 8 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From St Johns Industrial Air Park (SJN) to Big Bear City Airport (L35)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA121
- 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
Glines Kenneth TAILWIND W 8
- Aircraft type
- Glines Kenneth TAILWIND W 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
- N1983T
- Operator
- Earhart, Robert e · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St Johns Industrial Air Park (SJN), Saint Johns, AZTo Big Bear City Airport (L35), BIG BEAR, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 33 years (built 1983)
- 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 · flare/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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot, during his approach at a non-towered airport at night, he made the descent to what he thought was the runway, but realized that it was actually the taxiway, and "slipped" right, to what he then perceived to be the runway. Upon touchdown, the airplane ground looped and nosed over. The pilot had landed and nosed over in the safety area to the left of the runway.
The pilot reported that he had been flying for the preceding 12 hour period, and conceded to having exceeded his personal endurance limitations. The airplane sustained substantial damage to both wings.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or anomalies with the airplane prior to or during the flight that would have prevented normal flight operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadvertent landing off the left side of the snow-covered runway, resulting in a ground loop and nose over.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA121
- Event ID
- 20160208X50851
- Case number
- GAA16CA121
- 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 2016-01-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7a5980e2c8cd0618b0c90698f04c2be71e70784ec0dc7ecaa1e57eae5737bd00; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:08:30.807Z.