GAA18CA169 · Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160
Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160 · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH) to Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA169
- 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
Cubcrafters Inc CC11-160
- Aircraft type
- Cubcrafters CC11
- 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
- N473CC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (BIH), Bishop, CATo Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH), Mammoth Lakes, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2013)
- 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 · aborted after touchdown
- 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
The pilot of the tundra-tire- and tailwheel-equipped airplane was making a night landing at a high-altitude airport. He reported that, to mitigate the crosswind component, he decided to land from right to left on the 100-ft-wide runway. He added that the wheel landing was normal, but the airplane would not return to centerline from the left side of the runway. He added power to go around, but the left main wheel sheared off, and the airplane ground looped to the right.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and empennage.
The automated weather observation station located on the airport reported that, about the time of the accident, the wind was from 220° at 19 knots, gusting 31 knots. The airplane landed on runway 27.
The airplane's operating handbook stated that the maximum demonstrated crosswind component was 13 mph/11 knots. The calculated crosswind component using steady winds was 15 knots, using gusting winds, it was 24 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll in a gusting crosswind conditions, which exceeded the airplane’s maximum demonstrated crosswind and resulted in the collapse of the left main landing gear.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA169
- Event ID
- 20180316X61620
- Case number
- GAA18CA169
- 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: 55f07896cbd4fd88ac3be1a9aa2ce78d8320c412b399486f6cb9999a99285a71; retrieved 2026-09-16T06:39:27.835Z.