FTW95LA201 · Harding 1500-R-MINI-MAX 1500-R-MIN
Harding 1500-R-MINI-MAX 1500-R-MIN · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From No airport to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA201
- 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
Harding 1500-R-MINI-MAX 1500-R-MIN
- Aircraft type
- Harding 1500
- 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
- N366RH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall; Wire, transmission
- 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 › Airspeed, not obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS LANDED ON A GRASS AREA THAT NORMALLY WAS USED AS A HELIPAD. THE PILOT ABORTED THE FIRST TAKEOFF, WHICH WAS ATTEMPTED ON AN UPSLOPE TO THE NORTH. WITNESSES REPORTED THE AIRPLANE DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH SPEED TO TAKE OFF. THE PILOT THEN REVERSED THE DIRECTION AND INITIATED A TAKEOFF TO THE SOUTH IN A DOWNHILL DIRECTION. WITNESSES REPORTED THE PILOT 'FORCED' THE AIRPLANE INTO THE AIR. THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED MANEUVERING TO CLEAR BUILDINGS AS IT CLIMBED TO 60' TO 75'. IT THEN ENTERED A LEFT DESCENDING TURN, HIT A POWERLINE WIRE ABOUT 20' ABOVE THE GROUND, AND CRASHED. ONE WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE 'APPEARED TO BE LACKING POWER.' HOWEVER, AN EXAMINATION REVEALED THE PROPELLER BLADES WERE SHATTERED WITH INDICATIONS THAT THE ENGINE WAS PRODUCING POWER DURING IMPACT. FLIGHT CONTROL CONTINUITY WAS CONFIRMED DURING THE INVESTIGATION. THE TEMPERATURE WAS 83 DEGREES, AND THE DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS ABOUT 2200'. LIGHT WIND (ABOUT 3 KNOTS) WAS REPORTED IN THE AREA.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF AN UNSUITABLE LANDING/TAKEOFF AREA, AND HIS FAILURE TO OBTAIN OR MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED DURING TAKEOFF, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA201
- Event ID
- 20001207X03456
- Case number
- FTW95LA201
- 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: 78b39b125fba58a86b5813fd475a6be2dde5df5b422d04884451056ade9501a5; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:46:49.678Z.