GAA17CA478 · King John E JR KITFOX SERIES 6
King John E JR KITFOX SERIES 6 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Reno-Stead Airport (RTS) to Reno-Stead Airport (RTS)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA478
- 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
King John E JR KITFOX SERIES 6
- Aircraft type
- King John E JR KITFOX
- 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
- N993JK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NVTo Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2002)
- 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
- 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
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot in the tailwheel-equipped, experimental, amateur-built airplane, he attempted to land in shifting wind conditions. He reported that, during the landing flare on runway 8, a wind gust from the south caused the right wing to rise. He reported that he made the approach with full flaps applied and about 60 knots airspeed and corrected with right aileron, but the airplane landed with a left sideload. During the landing roll, the airplane veered to the right, and the left main landing gear wheel separated from the airplane. The airplane then veered to the left and sustained substantial damage to the lower left side of the fuselage.
The pilot reported that he "knew the winds were swirling and should have taken another look at it or found another runway for the newer developing wind conditions."
METARs at the accident airport are issued about every 20 minutes. Ten minutes before the accident, the METAR indicated that the wind was from 080° at 6 knots. About 10 minutes after the accident, the METAR indicated that the wind was from 140° at 5 knots.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during landing in variable wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA478
- Event ID
- 20170808X94600
- Case number
- GAA17CA478
- 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: bb3be9078e91bc0917725e4434aaaec75d13e536823d5942dfd2bea1bc261187; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:40:54.471Z.