GAA17CA319 · Magnaghi Aeronautica SPA SKY ARROW LSA
US Aero Magnaghi Aeronautica SPA SKY ARROW LSA · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Prairie Cottage Airport (8KS8) to Freeman Field (3JC)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA319
- 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
Magnaghi Aeronautica SPA SKY ARROW LSA
- Aircraft type
- Magnaghi Aeronautica SKY ARROW
- 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
- N600US
- Operator
- US Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Prairie Cottage Airport (8KS8), Chapman, KSTo Freeman Field (3JC), Junction City, KS
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2016)
- 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
- 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 takeoff from a private turf airstrip, about 50 ft above the ground, the airplane encountered a wind gust that "quickly" lifted the left wing and pushed the airplane to the right. He added that he attempted to level the wings, but he "did not have enough aileron." Subsequently, the airplane impacted terrain in a nose-low, right-wing-down attitude.
The fuselage and both wings sustained substantial damage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported that the temperature was 85°, the sky was clear, and the wind was from 200° at 5 knots and not gusting. He took off from runway 23.
An automated weather observation station, about 14 nautical miles from the accident airport, recorded wind from 170° at 9 knots, gusting to 20 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain lateral/bank control during the takeoff climb in gusting crosswind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA319
- Event ID
- 20170603X43730
- Case number
- GAA17CA319
- 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: 528a937100af8ac41b1981413c1e14fef32777b3275ed2f2a1d7ba4d46231aad; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:21:42.663Z.