NYC98FA107 · Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) ERCO-415C
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) ERCO-415C · Accident: loss of engine power
From Evergreen Mountain Heliport (NY54) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC98FA107
- 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
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) ERCO-415C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe (eng Research ERCO-415
- 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
- N3230H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Evergreen Mountain Heliport (NY54), Cooperstown, NYTo 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
- Unknown
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Miscellaneous, engine pre-ignition and/or detonation
- 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
Approximately 20 minutes after the pilot and passenger departed on a local flight a witness heard the engine sputter then quit. The airplane then maneuvered for an open field, impacted it in a level attitude, and burst into flames. During examination of the number 2 piston, a hole from detonation approximately 1 inch long and 1/4 inch wide was observed melted through the piston head (according to a FAA Advisory Curricular 65-12A, detonation can burn a hole completely through a piston). At the accident location, grass laid over on its side and spaced constant with the airplane's landing gear marked the start of the debris field. These marks were subtle and continued in the direction of the wreckage for about 12 feet. After 12 feet, the slope of the grass covered terrain increased 10 degrees and the ground scars became more pronounced. According to a New York State Police Officer, the state police helicopter crew that responded to the accident reported the crash site looked 'level' from the air. However, when measured along the debris field axis with an inclinometer, the slope was 15 degrees up.
Probable cause
Detonation within the No. 2 cylinder resulting in melting and breaching of the piston, and the pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for landing. Contributing factors were the uphill terrain encountered during the landing and the visual perception (illusion) that the terrain was not sloped.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC98FA107
- Event ID
- 20001211X10170
- Case number
- NYC98FA107
- 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: 8e0b5785a744446077bece885efb6727654daec145aca7b8a216ba8bc53cea33; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:35:24.603Z.