CHI94LA350 · Ultralight CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
Ultralight CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Earlville Airport (C94) to Argos, IN (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA350
- 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
Ultralight CHALLENGER II CHALLENGER
- Aircraft type
- Ultralight CHALLENGER
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Earlville Airport (C94), Erie, ILTo Argos, IN (no airport)
- 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 103: Ultralight
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Aircraft control › Not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE STUDENT PILOT REPORTED THAT AT ABOUT 1100 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND, THE AIRPLANE JOLTED, SHUDDERED, AND BEGAN TO TURN LEFT. THE BANK ANGLE BECAME PROGRESSIVELY STEEPER AND THE TURN PROGRESSIVELY TIGHTER. THE STUDENT PILOT SAID THAT IN AN ATTEMPT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL, HE APPLIED RIGHT RUDDER AND RIGHT AILERON, BUT THE AIRPLANE DID NOT RESPOND. THE AIRPLANE ENTERED INTO A DIVE TO THE LEFT AND IMPACTED A BEAN FIELD. THE STUDENT PILOT'S FIRST FLIGHT IN THE CHALLENGER, WITHOUT THE OPTIONAL KIT DOORS, WAS TAKEN THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. HOWEVER, THE DOORS WERE INSTALLED AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE DIRECTIONAL STABILITY OF THE AIRCRAFT (DUE TO INSTALLATION OF LEXAN COCKPIT ENCLOSURE DOORS), WHICH PRECIPITATED A LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA350
- Event ID
- 20001206X02231
- Case number
- CHI94LA350
- 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: 8e4ca6d49960408db7a1af5bf386b689b91c91a6f2870e0b6efea15ac281241d; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:37:28.285Z.