MIA96LA041 · McKibben GN-1 AIRCAMPER GN-1 AIRCA
McKibben GN-1 AIRCAMPER GN-1 AIRCA · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From M51 to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96LA041
- 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
McKibben GN-1 AIRCAMPER GN-1 AIRCA
- Aircraft type
- Mckibben GN-1
- 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
- N823GM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From M51To 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Performance data, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Mayhew, MS, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot had manufactured a new propeller for his airplane. Before taking off on the first flight after certification, he performed taxi and runup tests on the engine and airplane. After takeoff, the airplane did not climb very fast and reached an altitude of only about 50 feet. After realizing that the airplane was not performing as expected, he attempted to stay over a clear field. To do this, he had to make a shallow turn, and the airplane started to descend. The airplane then struck trees at approximately 3,500 feet from the departure end of the runway. A postaccident investigation revealed no evidence of mechanical failure of the engine. When questioned, the pilot said that he expected the new propeller to produce 110 horsepower at 4500 rpm or 65 horsepower at 3000 rpm. However, during takeoff, the rpm only reached about 2600 rpm.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper planning/decision, and failure to verify the airplane's performance data. The airplane's lack of climb capability with the newly manufactured propeller was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96LA041
- Event ID
- 20001207X05054
- Case number
- MIA96LA041
- 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: 5e9406d5c1c92562a60a2b1863e30686643b4318dc27b1a65292b4134c5306a5; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:58:21.224Z.