21 Aug 2008: NTBK Wag Aero Sport — James H. Beeghly

21 Aug 2008: NTBK Wag Aero Sport (N141ST) — James H. Beeghly

No fatalities • Oxford, IA, United States

Probable cause

The pilot misjudged his approach path which resulted in insufficient altitude and the subsequent failure to maintain clearance with the trees. Contributing to the accident were the trees and the dusk lighting conditions.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

On August 20, 2008, at 2015 central daylight time, an amateur built NTBK LLC Wag Aero Sport Trainer, N141ST, collided with the scrub trees while landing on runway 15 at the Green Castle Airport, a private airstrip, in Oxford, Iowa. The private pilot received minor injuries. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings and firewall. The personal flight was operating under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The local flight originated from the Green Castle Airport at 1940.

The pilot reported the total runway length is 4,800 feet, the northern 1,400 feet of which is grass and the southern 2,400 feet is asphalt. He reported he was practicing touch and go landings on the grass portion of the runway when the accident occurred. The pilot reported he made three touch and go landings, and decided to make one more before it got too dark. He stated that the final approach descent path appeared to be above the low-lying trees. He stated that he did not realize he was too low until he felt a "sharp blow" to the airplane and the airplane rotated to the right descending to the ground. The pilot reported that he should have realized that "...landing as close to the trees as I intended was unsafe" when the runway lights came on while he was on final approach.

Contributing factors

  • factor Contributed to outcome
  • cause Descent/approach/glide path — Not attained/maintained
  • factor Contributed to outcome
  • cause Altitude — Not attained/maintained

Conditions

Weather
VMC

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 5,200+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.