FTW94FA041 · Quicksilver MX II
Quicksilver MX II · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From No airport to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA041
- 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
Quicksilver MX II
- Aircraft type
- Quicksilver MX
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Jackson, Larry D. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo No airport
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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 › Clearance, not attained
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT ELECTED TO TAKE OFF FROM A FIELD ON A NORTHERLY HEADING WITH A WIND FROM THE SOUTHEAST AT 4 KNOTS. DURING TAKEOFF, THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A TELEPHONE WIRE THAT WAS LOCATED ABOUT 480 FEET FROM THE SOUTH END OF THE FIELD AND 20 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL. THE TERRAIN ROSE ABOUT 1 DEGREE WITH A GRASSY, UNEVEN, SURFACE. THE AIRCRAFT WAS A 2-SEAT VERSION OF AN ULTRALIGHT. ITS EMPTY WEIGHT WAS 300 LBS; ITS TAKEOFF WEIGHT WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 700 LBS (7 LBS ABOVE THE MAX LIMIT). THE AIRCRAFT WAS CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE AIRPLANE CATEGORY, BUT IT HAD NOT BEEN CERTIFICATED. THE PILOT HAD OWNED THE AIRCRAFT ABOUT 1-1/2 WEEKS & HAD NEVER FLOWN IT WITH A PASSENGER. AN EXAM OF THE AIRPLANE & ENGINE DID NOT DISCLOSE ANY MECHANICAL PROBLEMS. TOXICOLOGY TESTS WERE POSITIVE FOR MARIHUANA WITH LEVELS OF 0.008 UG/ML TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL, 0.084 UG/ML TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL CARBOXYLIC ACID DETECTED IN THE BLOOD, & 0.650 UG/ML TETRAHYDROCANNABINOL CARBOXYLIC ACID DETECTED IN THE URINE.
Probable cause
POOR JUDMENT OF THE PILOT AFTER USE OF DRUGS, HIS IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION, AND HIS FAILURE TO REMAIN CLEAR OF AN OBSTRUCTION DURING TAKEOFF. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S OVERCONFIDENCE WITH THE AIRCRAFT'S ABILITY, A TAILWIND CONDITION, RISING TERRAIN, AND AN OBSTRUCTION (TRANSMISSION LINE) NEAR THE END OF THE TAKEOFF AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA041
- Event ID
- 20001211X13731
- Case number
- FTW94FA041
- 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: f0f0d029291218ffa545f2fab2cc086531eba68801de724591a59ed74abba188; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:18:16.944Z.