GAA16CA477 · Pacific Aerospace Corp Ltd 750XL
D.C. Skydiving Center Pacific Aerospace Corp Ltd 750XL · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Warrenton Air Park (7VG0) to Warrenton Air Park (7VG0)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA16CA477
- 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
Pacific Aerospace Corp Ltd 750XL
- Aircraft type
- Pacific Aerospace 750
- 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
- N750SS
- Operator
- D.C. Skydiving Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Warrenton Air Park (7VG0), Warrenton, VATo Warrenton Air Park (7VG0), Warrenton, VA
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2005)
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that this was his third skydiving flight of the day and he performed a back taxi on the runway for takeoff. He further reported that as he rotated the airplane for takeoff, he heard a "steady" stall warning horn, the flight controls felt mushy, and the airplane would not climb. The pilot reported that he aborted the takeoff and applied max braking and reverse thrust, but the airplane overran the runway remaining. Subsequently, the landing gear collapsed and the airplane collided with a fence.
The left and right wing sustained substantial damage.
After the accident, the pilot reported that he observed the wing flaps in the fully retracted position. He reported that the flaps should have been set to 20 degrees for takeoff. The pilot reported that he forgot to set the flaps during the back taxi for takeoff because he was communicating with other airplanes near the airport. The pilot reported that he did not use a physical checklist, but he did run through a checklist mentally.
The pilot reported no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to set the wing flaps for takeoff, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall, an aborted takeoff, and a runway overrun.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA16CA477
- Event ID
- 20160913X92743
- Case number
- GAA16CA477
- 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: 6afe2cb0a0ae0429074ce34088394b2399e4980fc166c16d87cc5fafcb908f52; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:15:53.735Z.