CHI95FA182 · Grumman G-21E
Grumman G-21E · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Dupage Airport (DPA) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI95FA182
- 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
- 2 · 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
Grumman G-21E
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-21
- 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
- N121H
- Operator
- Rodgers, John D. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dupage Airport (DPA)To 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
- 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 › Rotation, excessive
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT OF THE GRUMMAN G-21 IN TWO YEARS. ALSO, THE PILOT HAD NOT FLOWN THE G-21 FOR TWO YEARS. BEFORE TAKING OFF, THE PILOT REPORTED THAT THREE TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS WOULD BE NEEDED FOR PURPOSES OF BECOMING CURRENT. AFTER TAKEOFF, HE FLEW THE AIRPLANE APPROXIMATELY ONE HOUR AND MADE TWO FULL STOP LANDINGS. DURING THE THIRD TAKEOFF, THE AIRPLANE WAS DESCRIBED AS LIFTING OFF IN A SHORT DISTANCE AND GOING INTO A NOSE HIGH ATTITUDE BELOW AN ALTITUDE OF 100 FEET. THE AIRPLANE THEN ROLLED LEFT, STRUCK THE GROUND IN A STEEP DESCENT, AND BURNED. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE ENGINES WERE PROVIDING POWER UNTIL IMPACT; THE ENGINES AND PROPELLERS HAD EVIDENCE OF ROTATIONAL DAMAGE. THE FLAP ACTUATORS WERE FOUND EXTENDED TO A POSITION THAT EQUATED WITH 30 DEGREES OF FLAPS (HALF FLAPS). FOUR G-21 PILOTS WERE INTERVIEWED. ACCORDING TO THEM, FLAPS WERE NOT NORMALLY USED FOR TAKEOFF IN THIS AIRPLANE. THEY REPORTED THAT THE TURBOPROP ENGINES HAD SUBSTANTIAL POWER FOR THE WEIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE PLANE WAS NOT LOADED, AND THAT THE G-21 WOULD TEND TO BECOME AIRBORNE QUICKLY WITH FLAPS EXTENDED. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS NOTED DURING THE INVESTIGATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT ALLOWED EXCESSIVE NOSE-UP ROTATION OF THE AIRPLANE DURING LIFT-OFF, AND FAILED TO OBTAIN AND/OR MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL AND COLLISION WITH THE TERRAIN. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT EXPERIENCE IN THE MAKE AND MODEL OF AIRPLANE, AND THE USE OF FLAPS DURING A LIGHT WEIGHT TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI95FA182
- Event ID
- 20001207X03645
- Case number
- CHI95FA182
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-06-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 96fa78b471dc2421a3f3f05ef4b95b18f1dd5d27c0c24ac3fc12be8ab91aecb5; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:44:32.483Z.