CHI95LA127 · Piper J3C
Piper J3C · Accident: loss of control on ground/water while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95LA127
- 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
Piper J3C
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N6673H
- Operator
- Unknown
- 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
- Taxi
- 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 on ground/water
- 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
- Dual student › Throttle/power control, excessive
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER LANDING, THE COMMERCIAL CERTIFICATED STUDENT BEGAN TO TURN THE AIRPLANE TO BACK TAXI TO THE END OF THE RUNWAY TO TAKEOFF AGAIN BY ADVANCING THE THROTTLE AND APPLYING THE LEFT BRAKE. AS THE AIRPLANE TURNED PERPENDICULAR TO THE RUNWAY, THE INSTRUCTOR ASSISTED THE STUDENT WITH DEPRESSING THE BRAKE BECAUSE SHE WAS HAVING SOME DIFFICULTY. THE THROTTLE WAS FORWARD AND AS THE INSTRUCTOR RELEASED THE PRESSURE OFF THE BRAKE, THE AIRPLANE'S TAIL BEGAN TO LIFT OFF THE GROUND. THE INSTRUCTOR PULLED THE THROTTLE TO THE IDLE POSITION, BUT THE TAIL CONTINUED TO RISE. THE INSTRUCTOR STATED THAT IT APPEARED THAT THE WIND GOT UNDER THE TAIL AND CONTINUED TO MAKE IT RISE. THE PROPELLER STRUCK THE GROUND AND THE AIRPLANE BECAME INVERTED.
Probable cause
The student pilot's excessive throttle control and the certified flight instructor's inadequate supervision of the student. A factor in the accident was the gusty wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95LA127
- Event ID
- 20001207X03261
- Case number
- CHI95LA127
- 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: 670703f3e4e11c0c5018cd718ee85b6ae67ad940e84c263589eaf1ac686a3516; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:03:06.142Z.