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WPR24LA186 · Grumman/Schweizer G-164D

7 Jun 2024 · Richvale, CA, United States

AvAg Grumman/Schweizer G-164D · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing

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Event

NTSB case
WPR24LA186
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

Grumman/Schweizer G-164D

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
N6736K
Operator
Avag
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft age
About 46 years (built 1978)
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 137: Agricultural
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
Collision during takeoff/landing
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

  • 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 of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that after the airplane was loaded with 2,400 – 2,500 lbs of rice seed, he exited the loading area and initiated takeoff on a 2,200-foot long runway. During takeoff roll, about mid-field, the tail lifted up as he expected, and engine instruments showed expected performance. However, acceleration seemed diminished, and he increased power “to the stops.” Subsequently, the airplane struck an embankment at the end of the runway, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and bottom left wing leading edge. At the time of the accident, the pilot was departing runway 34, and wind was from 170° at 5 knots. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.

Probable cause

The pilot’s decision to take off with a tailwind and their failure to maintain clearance from terrain.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record WPR24LA186
Event ID
20240610194431
Case number
WPR24LA186
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, coordinates, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2024-06-08.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 4cf0e1b3efc4c01863848696822fc19c9e161db1238d9480c0c45b9bfc35829a; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:52:15.761Z.