NTSB Reveals That a Turtle Was On the Runway As the Stinson 108 Landed

An initial NTSB probe has revealed that the pilot involved in a deadly North Carolina plane crash may have been attempting to avoid a turtle on the runway during his landing attempt. Two were killed and another sustained serious injuries in the accident.

On June 3 at around 11:45?am, a Universal Stinson?108 registered N40518 touched down on Runway?2 at Sugar Valley Airport (5NC2) near Farmington, North Carolina. The aircraft landed about 1,400 feet down the 2,424-foot runway. According to an NTSB preliminary report, a UNICOM operator radioed that a turtle was on the runway before the pilot got down.

After touching down, witness reports reveal that the pilot then lifted the right main gear, advanced the throttle, and briefly took off again. A man mowing grass near the runway observed the plane become unstable, with its wings rocking side to side before it climbed briefly and disappeared from view.

Seconds later, he heard a crash and saw smoke rising from the trees. The aircraft came to rest in a wooded area about 225 feet beyond the end of the runway. It was largely intact, though damaged by fire and wedged between trees. Pieces of aircraft fabric were later recovered from a nearby stream.

While this kind of obstruction is fairly common on the roads, animal-related accidents are not as typical in aviation. Between 2012 and 2021, the NTSB recorded 46 crashes attributed to wildlife encounters, with none resulting in fatalities. Most animal-related aviation incidents involve birds: about 75 crashes in that period involved bird strikes, some damaging engines or wings. Only a handful involve ground-dwelling animals.

The final investigation report will be available in the next one to two years.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov