24 Sep 2010: PIPER PA-18-150 — GASTON GERALD M

24 Sep 2010: PIPER PA-18-150 — GASTON GERALD M

No fatalities • White Sulphur Springs, MT, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a go-around in turbulent wind conditions, which resulted in a collision with trees.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The pilot reported that he planned on landing his single-engine, tail wheel equipped, airplane in an open field in front of a friend's mountain cabin. The pilot made his first approach to the landing area and "dragged" his wheels across the landing area to test the roughness of the terrain before landing. The pilot then initiated a go-around and planned on landing during the next pass. Immediately upon initiating the go-around the pilot reported that he encountered severe turbulence over the tree populated terrain outside the periphery of his landing area. The turbulence forced the airplane down through the trees and into the ground. The pilot egressed the cockpit and the airplane was consumed by a post impact fire. The pilot stated that the airplane and engine had no mechanical failures or malfunctions during the flight.

Contributing factors

  • Effect on operation
  • cause Pilot
  • Tree(s)
  • cause Performance/control parameters — Not attained/maintained

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 300/11kt, vis 10sm

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.