BFO94LA097 · Falen COMMANDER 503 COMMANDER
Falen COMMANDER 503 COMMANDER · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during an uncontrolled descent
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO94LA097
- 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
- 1 · 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
Falen COMMANDER 503 COMMANDER
- Aircraft type
- Falen COMMANDER 503
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Falen, Gary · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Uncontrolled descent
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE UNREGISTERED HOME BUILT GYROPLANE WAS ENTERING A RIGHT BASE LEG FOR LANDING WHEN IT WAS OBSERVED TO SUDDENLY ENTER AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT AND IMPACT TERRAIN. ONE WITNESS STATED THAT THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING AT IMPACT. OTHER WITNESSES WERE INTERVIEWED AND NONE INDICATED AN ENGINE MALFUNCTION. FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE CARBURETORS. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF PRE-IMPACT MECHANICAL DEFICIENCIES. THE PILOT HAD NEVER HELD AN FAA AIRMAN CERTIFICATE. HIS PERSONAL LOGBOOK INDICATED THAT HE HAD FLOWN ABOUT 8 HOURS IN THE GYROPLANE.
Probable cause
THE GYROPLANE'S UNCONTROLLED DESCENT INTO TERRAIN DUE TO UNDETERMINED REASONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO94LA097
- Event ID
- 20001206X01459
- Case number
- BFO94LA097
- 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: af469f11ce7f4673af4d5937ea5c3844ce0908af6d07cc97b6fba9b03bab5cae; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:07:27.532Z.