GAA18CA486 · Bushby MUSTANG II
Bald Eagle Aviation Bushby MUSTANG II · Accident during takeoff
From Cuchara Valley At La Veta Airport (07V) to 5V6 · Akron, CO
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA18CA486
- 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
Bushby MUSTANG II
- Aircraft type
- Bushby MUSTANG
- 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
- N527JT
- Operator
- Bald Eagle Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cuchara Valley At La Veta Airport (07V), La Veta, COTo 5V6 · Akron, CO
- Aircraft age
- About 15 years (built 2003)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, while flying over the grass runway, it appeared "rough but serviceable." During landing, he found the surface was extremely rough with tall weeds. During the subsequent departure, acceleration was "less than normal" due to the vegetation. When the airplane reached the pilot's planned abort point for the runway, he realized that he had misjudged the abort point. He initially thought his selected abort point was about 800 to 1,000 ft before the end of the runway, but it was about 100 to 200 ft before the end of the runway. The airplane overran the runway, crossed a road, and struck a barbed wire fence.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The Federal Aviation Administration Airport Facility Directory for the accident airport, in part, stated: "[Runways] not recommended for [takeoff or landing]."
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper preflight planning that did not identify the unserviceable runway; his subsequent decision to attempt to takeoff from the rough, grassy runway; and his selection of an abort point with insufficient runway remaining, which resulted in a runway overrun.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA18CA486
- Event ID
- 20180813X60125
- Case number
- GAA18CA486
- 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, coordinates. 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: 4d8315caab40288ec6afcff435ef19780bd7bf59581d330d417fb9a11f87710e; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:05:10.252Z.