GAA18CA075 · Jones Kent C VANS RV-10
Jones Kent C VANS RV-10 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Johnson County Executive Airport (OJC) to Limon Municipal Airport (LIC)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA075
- 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
Jones Kent C VANS RV-10
- Aircraft type
- Jones Kent VANS RV-10
- 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
- N9738J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Johnson County Executive Airport (OJC), Olathe, KSTo Limon Municipal Airport (LIC), Limon, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 7 years (built 2010)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Wire; 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
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during a night approach, the runway precision approach path indicator lights indicated that the airplane was on a proper glidepath. Shortly after, the airplane encountered a "strong gust of wind" and "lost significant altitude." He added engine power and raised the airplane's nose to intercept the glidepath. A few seconds later, he felt a slight bump and heard a scraping noise to his right. He looked to the right, and when he returned his focus to the approaching runway, he noticed that the airport lights were no longer lit, and the airport was in "complete darkness." He added that he "couldn't really see anything and wasn't sure exactly where the runway was, [but he] knew [he] was going to have a hard landing." He then pulled the power back, moved the mixture to idle cut off, and turned the fuel selector off. Subsequently, the airplane landed hard off the runway, bounced, slid sideways, struck a tree, and then came to rest.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, both wings, and empennage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Following the accident, it was discovered that, during the approach, the airplane struck a power line that supplied the airport power.
The automated weather observation system at the accident airport reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 330° at 6 knots. The pilot was on a visual approach for runway 34.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration inspector assigned to the accident, the power line was estimated to be 75 ft above the ground and 1/2 mile from the runway threshold. The power line crossed perpendicular to the runway.
Probable cause
The pilot’s unstabilized approach and failure to go around at night, which resulted in the airplane impacting a power line and a subsequent hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA075
- Event ID
- 20171208X43240
- Case number
- GAA18CA075
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2017-12-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d111c0f196092b1d850ec786607e7a363e1c1aecdb4fae17ea42dd50f8b6a270; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:06:27.704Z.