ATL98LA100 · Aerofab Inc. LAKE LA-4-250 LAKE LA-4-
Aerofab Inc. LAKE LA-4-250 LAKE LA-4- · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid during takeoff
From No airport to Solberg/Hunterdon Airport (N51)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL98LA100
- 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
Aerofab Inc. LAKE LA-4-250 LAKE LA-4-
- Aircraft type
- Aerofab LAKE LA-4-250
- 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
- N1401P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo Solberg/Hunterdon Airport (N51), READINGTON, NJ
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- 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 › Crosswind component, not understood
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, improper
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Water loop/swerve, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Wise, NC, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while attempting a water takeoff from Lake Gaston, in Halifax County, North Carolina, the airplane encountered a boat wake. A right turn was made to parallel the wake, resulting in dragging the right sponson, and a water loop ensued. The FAA Advisory Circular 61-21A-Flight Training Handbook discusses the forces that act on a seaplane during a crosswind takeoff. It states that the crosswind pushes the airplane sideways, acting along with the friction of the airplane on the water causing the airplane to weathervane into the wind. The turn is aggravated by the occurrence of centrifugal force. This is opposed by the water reaction on the hull and if strong enough and, in combination with the wind may cause the seaplane to tip, submerging the downwind float and causing the wing to strike the water. This is known as a 'water loop'.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper turn during the takeoff that resulted in dragging the sponson. A factor was the rough water caused by the boat wake.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL98LA100
- Event ID
- 20001211X10477
- Case number
- ATL98LA100
- 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: 5c2df45200579dd9b5254b11c3c9ee4e089c6643a0081361cf991f49c8cd00ec; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:34:58.194Z.