BFO94LA060 · Talago THUNDERGULL JT2 THUNDERGUL
Talago THUNDERGULL JT2 THUNDERGUL · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA060
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Talago THUNDERGULL JT2 THUNDERGUL
- Aircraft type
- Talago THUNDERGULL JT2
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N73ST
- Operator
- Stanley Talago
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Central West Virginia Airport (CKB)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, adjustment, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE HAD JUST TAKEN OFF AND WAS IN ITS INITIAL CLIMB WHEN CONTROL WAS LOST. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TERRAIN IN AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT. THE PILOT STATED, 'AFTER A GOOD PRE-FLIGHT THE TOWER CLEARED ME TO DEPART...IMMEDIATELY ON LIFT OFF, THE AIRCRAFT JUMPED TO THE RIGHT. THERE WAS DEFINITELY A CONTROL PROBLEM BUT I HAVE NOT PINPOINTED WHERE.' THE FAA INSPECTOR'S POST ACCIDENT EXAMINATION REVEALED THE BOLT CONNECTING THE TWO RODS IN THE AILERON PUSH/PULL ROD ASSEMBLY WAS MISSING. THE BOLT HOLES IN BOTH RODS SHOWED NO DEFORMATION. ADDITIONALLY, THIS BOLT WAS CONNECTED WITH THE JAM NUT FOUND LOOSE DURING THE CONFORMITY INSPECTION. THE AIRPLANE HAD A TOTAL OF 4 HOURS. A CONFORMITY INSPECTION WAS PERFORMED BY AN FAA DESIGNATED AIRWORTHINESS REPRESENTATIVE (DAR) ON NOVEMBER 29, 1993. THE DAR'S CONFORMITY INSPECTION REPORT STATED 'JAM NUT LOOSE ON AILERON CONTROL IN OVERHEAD.' THE REPORT REVEALED THAT THE CORRECTIVE ACTION TAKEN WAS THAT THE BOLT WAS 'TIGHTENED.' THE KIT MANUFACTURER SPECIFIES THE USE OF A SELF LOCKING NUT, HOWEVER, THE PILOT USED A JAM NUT.
Probable cause
The builder's inadequate maintenance adjustment which resulted in the aileron control assembly becoming disconnected.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA060
- Event ID
- 20001206X01044
- Case number
- BFO94LA060
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 200e07690de044d454ddee95fec82dfad0d56eabc3ca69becf93940da6848808; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:01:47.896Z.