BFO93LA068 · Leveck VANCRAFT
Leveck VANCRAFT · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO93LA068
- 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
- 1 · 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
Leveck VANCRAFT
- Aircraft type
- Leveck VANCRAFT
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Jack Leveck
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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 103: Ultralight
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Rotor RPM, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES STATED THAT THEY SAW THE GYROPLANE TAKEOFF AND REACH AN ALTITUDE OF ABOUT 100 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. THEY SAID THAT THE GYROPLANE TRAVELED NORTH AND THEN TURNED STEEPLY TO THE WEST. THEY STATED THAT SHORTLY AFTER THE TURN WAS INITIATED, THE GYROPLANE FELL STRAIGHT DOWN TO THE GROUND. THE WITNESSES SAID THAT THEY HEARD THE ENGINE SPUTTER AND THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES WERE MOVING 'SLOWLY' AROUND DURING THE DESCENT. THE POST ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION DID NOT REVEAL ANY AIRFRAME OR ENGINE ANOMALIES. A FRIEND OF THE PILOT STATED THAT THIS WAS THE PILOT'S FIRST FLIGHT IN THE GYROPLANE AFTER HE ADDED A 'BODY ENCLOSURE' TO IT. THE PILOT HELD AN FAA STUDENT PILOT CERTIFICATE.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ROTOR RPM, WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S LACK OF EXPERIENCE FLYING THE GYROPLANE WITH A BODY ENCLOSURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO93LA068
- Event ID
- 20001211X12300
- Case number
- BFO93LA068
- 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: 50dd4880e32ee7e231d4a42cadf74ecae21a5bd8a0008fac9f578861e5d2bbf7; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:34:49.313Z.