Narrative:

I was on the ground having just arrived with my daughter at the cafe adjacent to the terminal building and control tower. We had just walked into the terminal near the restaurant when I heard someone shout 'oh no!!!' I then saw a few people rush to the restaurant window that faces the runway; ramp and taxiways adjacent to the runway... Was the active runway and as I recall the winds were reported 220 @ 8 knots. I immediately saw a yellow piper cub headed down the runway in what looked to be a 260-280 heading....it appeared that both main tires were either in contact with the ground or where just slightly above it...it was hard to tell...his heading continued to progress away from the active runway midline and toward a row of hangers on the northwest side of the airport...I kept thinking to myself 'I hope that he does not try to take off' as he did not appear to have adequate speed to climb and surely would have stalled if attempted...it should be noted that his tail plane was flying with the tail wheel being up off of the ground as it left the active runway; passed over the 'grassy' area just off of [the] runway; and over taxiway bravo. I believe that his tail wheel did come back down to rest after having past all three....he then seemed to either strike the hanger or ground loop the plane between the hangers....then spun in nearly a 180 degree turn to the right when it finally came to rest; left wing down on the ground; left main wheel strut broken; and nose pointing back toward the runway and direction he had just come from. I had no idea if he was trying to land and then execute a go around; or if it was his take-off roll; because I did not see him until he was approaching near mid field; and shortly thereafter headed off of the runway and to the right (northwest) I felt that the pilot(s) did an incredibly good job of dodging the side of the hanger which surely would have caused much greater damage to the hanger; their aircraft; and possibly to themselves from a physical standpoint....when the plane stopped moving; I noticed the prop turned a few more times before it finally stopped. I don't know if it struck the ground or not....I was very pleased and thankful to see the pilots exit the aircraft on their own and could be seen standing off to the side. Some of what I witnessed was from the viewing area directly beneath the tower; and after the plane came to rest I moved out toward and onto the south ramp were I could see better and to make sure that the two pilots had been able to extricate themselves.a fire department fire engine arrived on scene near the tower within a few minutes; but they were on the wrong side of the field and needed to exit back out around to the northside of the airport in order to get closer to the scene. At least 2-3 other fire rescue vehicles were seen to arrive to assist shortly thereafter. The airport ramp vehicles; maintenance personnel; were on scene very quickly; along with a few bystanders who seemed to already be over on the north side of the airport...possibly aircraft owners or pilots...I was not sure. I witnessed no fire from my vantage point.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An observer reported that a Piper Cub was headed off the runway out of control; the tail wheel off the ground; ground looped prior to coming to a stop between two hangars.

Narrative: I was on the ground having just arrived with my daughter at the Cafe adjacent to the terminal building and control tower. We had just walked into the terminal near the restaurant when I heard someone shout 'Oh No!!!' I then saw a few people rush to the restaurant window that faces the runway; ramp and taxiways adjacent to the runway... was the active runway and as I recall the winds were reported 220 @ 8 knots. I immediately saw a yellow Piper Cub headed down the runway in what looked to be a 260-280 heading....it appeared that both main tires were either in contact with the ground or where just slightly above it...it was hard to tell...his heading continued to progress away from the active runway midline and toward a row of hangers on the northwest side of the airport...I kept thinking to myself 'I hope that he does not try to take off' as he did not appear to have adequate speed to climb and surely would have stalled if attempted...it should be noted that his tail plane was flying with the tail wheel being up off of the ground as it left the active runway; passed over the 'grassy' area just off of [the] runway; and over taxiway Bravo. I believe that his tail wheel did come back down to rest after having past all three....he then seemed to either strike the hanger or ground loop the plane between the hangers....Then spun in nearly a 180 degree turn to the right when it finally came to rest; left wing down on the ground; left main wheel strut broken; and nose pointing back toward the runway and direction he had just come from. I had no idea if he was trying to land and then execute a go around; or if it was his take-off roll; because I did not see him until he was approaching near mid field; and shortly thereafter headed off of the runway and to the right (Northwest) I felt that the pilot(s) did an incredibly good job of dodging the side of the hanger which surely would have caused much greater damage to the hanger; their aircraft; and possibly to themselves from a physical standpoint....when the plane stopped moving; I noticed the prop turned a few more times before it finally stopped. I don't know if it struck the ground or not....I was very pleased and thankful to see the pilots exit the aircraft on their own and could be seen standing off to the side. Some of what I witnessed was from the viewing area directly beneath the tower; and after the plane came to rest I moved out toward and onto the south ramp were I could see better and to make sure that the two pilots had been able to extricate themselves.A fire department fire engine arrived on scene near the tower within a few minutes; but they were on the wrong side of the field and needed to exit back out around to the Northside of the airport in order to get closer to the scene. At least 2-3 other fire rescue vehicles were seen to arrive to assist shortly thereafter. The airport ramp vehicles; maintenance personnel; were on scene very quickly; along with a few bystanders who seemed to already be over on the North side of the airport...possibly aircraft owners or pilots...I was not sure. I witnessed no fire from my vantage point.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.