GAA16LA329 · Mini MAX 1200 Z
Mini MAX 1200 Z · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin during initial climb
From Batesville Airport (HLB) to Batesville Airport (HLB)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16LA329
- 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
Mini MAX 1200 Z
- Aircraft type
- Mini Max 1200
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Batesville Airport (HLB), Batesville, INTo Batesville Airport (HLB), Batesville, IN
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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 › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during the initial climb after takeoff, he noticed the controls were "loose and sloppy," and he elected to return to the airport and land. During the turn back to the airport, the airplane's nose dropped, and the pilot increased back pressure on the control stick with little effect. The airplane descended into the wooded terrain about 1/4-mile northwest of the airport, resulting in substantial damage to both wings and the fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot was likely unfamiliar with the airplane's handling characteristics, as he stated that he had not received any flight training specific to the accident airplane. It is likely that, during the turn, the nose dropped due an aerodynamic stall; the pilot's increased back pressure on the control stick exacerbated the stall by further decreasing the airspeed and increasing the angle of attack.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed and his exceedance of the airplane's critical angle-of-attack, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's decision to depart without obtaining flight training in the accident airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16LA329
- Event ID
- 20160623X91927
- Case number
- GAA16LA329
- 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: c3f674d344f6ac3224992e68a9cc734feeb2045957163ee03096d2a3a7f0c80c; retrieved 2026-09-16T03:33:10.404Z.