FTW92LA072 · Ryan NAVION A
Ryan NAVION A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW92LA072
- 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
Ryan NAVION A
- Aircraft type
- Ryan NAVION
- 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
- N39JH
- Operator
- Hopcus, Jerry A. · private individual
- 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 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Propeller system/accessories, hydraulic pitch ctl › Incorrect
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, HE LIFTED OFF THE 1,800 FOOT SOFT SOD RUNWAY AFTER AN 800 FOOT GROUND ROLL AND AS THE AIRPLANE PASSED OVER THE FENCE, HE NOTICED THE CLIMB DETERIORATING. A SCAN OF THE INSTRUMENTS INDICATED THE TACHOMETER INDICATING 2,100 RPM VERSUS THE 2,500 RPM THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NORMAL FOR TAKEOFF. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY CROSSED A RIVER AND IMPACTED THE OPPOSITE BANK. TWO OF THE PASSENGERS STATED THAT THEY THOUGHT THE PILOT HAD USED MOST OF THE RUNWAY DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL. POST-ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF PRE-IMPACT MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. TEAR DOWN OF THE PROPELLER INDICATED THAT THE BLADES WERE AT A PITCH SETTING OF ABOUT 20.5 DEGREES INSTEAD OF THE 12.5 DEGREES PITCH WHICH WAS NORMAL FOR TAKEOFF AND CLIMB. NO EXPLANATION FOR THE HIGHER PITCH SETTING WAS FOUND DURING THE INVESTIGATION. A COMPUTER SIMULATION OF THE ACCIDENT SCENARIO INDICATED THAT THE BLADE ANGLE WOULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT 18.5 DEGREES FOR THE CONDITIONS AND POWER DESCRIBED BY THE PILOT.
Probable cause
THE PROPELLER HYDRAULIC CONTROL PITCH SETTING BEING INCORRECT FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO IDENTIFY AND CORRECT THE PITCH SETTING AS THE PROPELLER WENT TO A HIGHER SETTING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW92LA072
- Event ID
- 20001211X14114
- Case number
- FTW92LA072
- 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: ac033f246b7c3b6930860f46c8a34c5288b32d93fd2cee5301d71dc261da3a73; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:06:27.958Z.