- Date
- June 18, 2025, 12:00 local (18:00 UTC)
- Place
- Challis, ID
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N6161CKohut Mark A Murphy SR 2500
- Defining event
- Landing-landing roll: Loss of control on ground
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 26, 2025
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Western Pacific Region
- Parties
- FAA
- Case key
- 200374
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll.
Findings · 3
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that he planned to land at the remote backcountry airstrip. Before landing, he performed a series of passes along an adjacent river to assess the runway conditions and then proceeded with the landing approach. After touchdown, while the airplane was in a 3-point attitude, the airplane began to drift to the left, and the pilot was unable to maintain directional control. The airplane exited the left side of the runway and impacted a fence before it came to rest upright. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the empennage. The pilot reported no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N6161C
- Reported as
- Kohut Mark A Murphy SR 2500
- Category
- Airplane, amateur-built
- Serial number
- 015SR
- Built
- 2003
- Airframe hours
- 600
- Engine
- Lycoming O-540, 250 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Special, Experimental (Special)
- Last inspection
- Condition · June 1, 2025 · 20 hours before
- Departed
- U60 · Big Creek, ID
- Destination
- Same as departure
- Airport
- C53 · Lower Loon Creek Airport, runway 16, 1,200 × 25 ft, grass/turf
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Auto-pilot, Electronic flight bag or handheld device, Handheld GPS, Onboard weather, Satellite tracking device, Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 77
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine sea, Single-engine land, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- BasicMed, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- May 3, 2025
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 3,224 total · 344 in this make and model · 3,212 as pilot in command · 21 in the last 90 days · 21 in the last 30 days · 2 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 90° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 32 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.06 inHg
- Observed at
- KLLJ, 31 nm away
- METAR
- METAR KLLJ 181755Z AUTO 09007KT 060V120 10SM CLR 26/00 A3006 RMK AO2 SLP111 T02560000 10256 20094 58017=
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on September 26, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 6.6 MB in all.