CHI94LA189 · Waco UPF-7
Waco UPF-7 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Runyan Aviation Airport (IL15) to Runyan Aviation Airport (IL15)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA189
- 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
Waco UPF-7
- Aircraft type
- Waco UPF-7
- 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
- N29952
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Runyan Aviation Airport (IL15), Bushnell, ILTo Runyan Aviation Airport (IL15)
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS ON A LOCAL FLIGHT WHEN THE AIRPLANE CRASHED. A WITNESS, WHO DID NOT SEE THE AIRPLANE, REPORTED THAT HE HEARD THE SOUND OF THE ENGINE 'CUTTING OUT AND STARTING BACK UP.' A SECOND WITNESS, WHO WAS DRIVING A TRACTOR, SAW THE AIRPLANE, BUT DID NOT HEAR IT. HE STATED THE AIRPLANE MADE 'A COUPLE WIDE CIRCLES GOING DOWN FAIRLY FAST AS IT DID.' ACCORDING TO A POLICE REPORT, THE SECOND WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT IN A 'NOSEDIVE, TAILSPIN.' THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED IN AN OPEN FIELD AT A SLIGHT ANGLE, THEN SKIDDED. WRECKAGE WAS FOUND OVER A 379 FT AREA. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED NO PREIMPACT ANOMALIES OF THE AIRFRAME OR ENGINE. TOXICOLOGY TESTS OF THE PILOT'S LIVER TISSUE SHOWED 4.0 MG/KG OF IMIPRAMINE AND 2.0 MG/KG OF DESIPRAMINE. THE PILOT'S MEDICAL RECORDS REVEALED THAT SHE HAD BEEN PRESCRIBED ANTIDEPRESSANTS FOR OVER 2 YEARS, BUT SHE HAD NOT REPORTED THIS ON HER APPLICATION FOR FAA MEDICAL CERTIFICATION.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, WHILE MANEUVERING. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE PILOT'S IMPAIRMENT DUE TO USE OF A PRESCRIPTION DRUG THAT WAS NOT APPROVED FOR USE WHILE FLYING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA189
- Event ID
- 20001206X01491
- Case number
- CHI94LA189
- 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: fb58874bebb59ac16182b7d118db99a88deedbbc2fbe62f9ccb79fe624b74f94; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:08:17.403Z.