BFO96LA013 · Zenair CH 2000
Zenair CH 2000 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Shannon Airport (EZF) to Hummel Field (W75)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO96LA013
- 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
Zenair CH 2000
- Aircraft type
- Zenair CH-2000
- 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
- N9151Z
- Operator
- Bonnie Legwin
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Shannon Airport (EZF), Fredericksburg, VATo Hummel Field (W75)
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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 STUDENT PILOT STATED THAT THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED DURING HIS FIRST SOLO CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT. HE REPORTED THAT UPON ARRIVAL AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT, HE PERFORMED A LOW APPROACH AND AN INTENTIONAL GO AROUND TO GET A FEEL FOR THE WINDS AND THE SHORT RUNWAY. THE STUDENT PILOT REPORTED THAT HE WAS COMFORTABLE WITH THE LANDING CONDITIONS, AND RETURNED TO THE AIRPORT FOR A FULL STOP LANDING. HE STATED THAT THE APPROACH SEEMED NORMAL UNTIL JUST PRIOR TO TOUCHDOWN, WHEN A STRONG GUST OF WIND LIFTED THE AIRPLANE AND PUSHED IT TO THE LEFT OF THE RUNWAY. THE STUDENT PILOT INITIATED A GO AROUND. HE REPORTED THAT HE APPLIED FULL POWER BUT DID NOT HAVE TIME TO RAISE THE FLAPS. HE STATED THAT THE WIND BLEW THE AIRPLANE TOWARD A GROVE OF TREES, AND THAT HE PULLED THE YOKE BACK AND BANKED TO THE LEFT IN AN ATTEMPT TO AVOID THE TREES. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A SOYBEAN FIELD ADJACENT TO THE GROVE OF TREES.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during an attempted go around.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO96LA013
- Event ID
- 20001207X04650
- Case number
- BFO96LA013
- 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: 46d399bcddd8a30e6a95a6e0a3648b3870f175091daa69f679db3c0bd252f8ff; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:02:27.623Z.