FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

ERA16LA184 · Globe GC 1B

14 May 2016 · Hedgesville, WV, United States

Globe GC 1B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

From Green Landings Airport (WV22) to Ormond Beach Municipal Airport (OMN)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
ERA16LA184
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

Globe GC 1B

Aircraft type
Globe GC-1
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
N78193
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Green Landings Airport (WV22), Hedgesville, WVTo Ormond Beach Municipal Airport (OMN), Ormond Beach, FL
Aircraft age
About 69 years (built 1947)
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
Initial climb
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
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

  • Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
  • Personnel issues › Task performance

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The commercial pilot indicated that he purchased the airplane the day of the accident. Before departure, he conducted an airplane run-up and taxied to the runway for takeoff; the takeoff was uneventful, and engine indications were normal. However, the airplane encountered an uncommanded roll at an altitude of about 100 ft above ground level. He attempted to level the wings but was unsuccessful. The nose of the airplane pitched down, and the airplane collided with the ground. A witness who watched the run-up before takeoff stated that a runway windsock indicated a gusting crosswind (with a slight tailwind component); he then observed what seemed like a rapid aileron input during the takeoff, and the airplane stalled. Postaccident examination of the engine and flight controls revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Thus, it is likely that the pilot was unable to regain control of the airplane when the airplane encountered a wind gust.

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control when it encountered a wind gust during climbout.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ERA16LA184
Event ID
20160516X83754
Case number
ERA16LA184
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: f2f9d84db83410f7dfb11162ac161feb1c12eee8ff9438f53bec498fa85069b4; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:23:36.864Z.