LAX92LA335 · Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415C
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415C · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Q17 · BOONEVILLE, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA335
- 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
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe (eng Research 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
- N99585
- Operator
- Ryan, Terry W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Q17 · BOONEVILLE, CA
- 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, not performed
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT TOOK OFF FROM AN UPSLOPE RUNWAY WITH A 4 KNOT TAILWIND WITH A HEAVILY LOADED AIRPLANE. THE AIRCRAFT USED ALL BUT A 100 FEET OF THE RUNWAY TO LIFT OFF. THE AIRCRAFT FAILED TO CLIMB AFTER IT LIFTED OFF AND COLLIDED WITH A LARGE FIR TREE ABOUT A QUARTER OF A MILE FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DISCLOSED NO EVIDENCE OF ANY PREEXISTING MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES. INVESTIGATORS FOUND THE THROTTLE IN THE FULL POWER POSITION AND THE MIXTURE CONTROL IN THE FULL RICH POSITION. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE WAS 5,900 FEET MEAN SEA LEVEL AND THE RUNWAY'S GRADIENT WAS A PLUS 1.11 PERCENT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO PERFORM ANY PREFLIGHT PLANNING OR PREPARATION AND SELECTED THE WRONG RUNWAY. FACTORS RELATING TO THIS ACCIDENT WAS THE EXISTING TAILWIND, HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA335
- Event ID
- 20001211X15435
- Case number
- LAX92LA335
- 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: fd817b2eba160c767f26812894dd821d5e6937b1d8f7815b496c09dcd6ffed68; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:49:27.113Z.