GAA17CA053 · Boeing A75N1(PT17) UNDESIGNAT
Boeing A75N1(PT17) UNDESIGNAT and Fairchild M62A 3 · Accident: ground collision during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA053
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Boeing A75N1(PT17) UNDESIGNAT
- Aircraft type
- Boeing A75
- 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
- N68117
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Westport Airport (71K), Wichita, KSTo High Point Airport (3KS5), Valley Center, KS
- Aircraft age
- About 74 years (built 1942)
- 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 · landing roll
- 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
- Ground collision
- 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
Aircraft 2 · Fairchild M62A 3
- Aircraft type
- Fairchild M62
- 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
- N73529
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Westport Airport (71K), Wichita, KSTo High Point Airport (3KS5), Valley Center, KS
- Aircraft age
- About 73 years (built 1943)
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the tail-wheel equipped Fairchild airplane reported that after landing on the 2,400-foot long by 100-foot wide private grass runway, he pulled off to the right of the runway about 2/3 of the way down with his engine at idle power to watch a Stearman airplane, which he had been flying in tandem with, land. The Fairchild pilot further reported that the Stearman appeared to be approaching a little fast, touched down about 1/2 way down the runway, and started drifting to the right, toward the stopped Fairchild.
The pilot of the tail-wheel equipped Stearman biplane reported that during the landing roll he was looking out of the left side of the Stearman, misjudged the width of the grass runway, and "clipped [the Fairchild] on [the] edge of runway". The Stearman then impacted a tree, resulting in substantial damage to the lower left wing and both right wings.
The Fairchild sustained substantial damage to the engine cowl and firewall.
The Fairchild pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The Stearman pilot reported that it was possible that the tailwheel bracket was broken prior to the airplane colliding with the Fairchild and impacting trees.
In a postaccident interview with the investigator-in-charge (IIC), the Stearman pilot reported that during the initial preflight and taxi of the airplane, the tailwheel bracket "looked good" and he had no issues steering during taxi and takeoff.
Probable cause
The other pilot's failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll and to see and avoid the airplane stopped on the edge of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA053
- Event ID
- 20161101X11028
- Case number
- GAA17CA053
- 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: 652b088672955e25b94276cc4e35b7d40a8fdc4e613dcab873c20bc7d265db1a; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:25:46.993Z.