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GAA18CA577 · Aviat A1 B

18 Sept 2018 · Grand Island, NE, United States

Aviat A1 B · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing

From Hot Springs Municipal Airport (HSR) to Central Nebraska Regional Airport (GRI)

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Event

NTSB case
GAA18CA577
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

Aviat A1 B

Aircraft type
Aviat A1
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
N811YD
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Hot Springs Municipal Airport (HSR), Hot Springs, SDTo Central Nebraska Regional Airport (GRI), Grand Island, NE
Aircraft age
About 14 years (built 2004)
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
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 tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that, during the second flight of the day, which was a 3 hour 30 minute flight, the tower controller at the destination airport instructed him to land on runway 35. During the landing roll, he lost directional control, the airplane ground looped to the right, and the left wing impacted the ground.

The pilot added that he believed the accident was the result of fatigue. He added that he should have requested runway 13, which would have reduced the crosswind component, rather than accept the assigned runway.

The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and left aileron.

The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.

The automated weather observation station at the airport reported that, about 37 minutes before the accident, the wind was from 100° at 12 knots. The same automated station reported that, about 23 minutes after the accident, the wind was from 100° at 12 knots, gusting to 22 knots. The airplane landed on runway 35.

Probable cause

The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll in tailwind and crosswind conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s fatigue.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record GAA18CA577
Event ID
20181003X52127
Case number
GAA18CA577
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: 65326d179b092743294a47d7ba9e1aac8ca0b41ff3b16314d0f8a5b5b00bb97e; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:18:03.776Z.