NYC92LA137 · Donald L. Betchan KR-II
Donald L. Betchan KR-II · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Bowman Field (LOU) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC92LA137
- 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
Donald L. Betchan KR-II
- Aircraft type
- Donald L Betchan KR-II
- 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
- N983DB
- Operator
- Hayward L. Powell · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bowman Field (LOU)To 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
- 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 › Flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot passenger › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE OWNER, SEATED IN THE RIGHT SEAT ALLOWED A PROSPECTIVE BUYER SEATED IN THE LEFT SEAT TO MAKE THE TAKEOFF. AFTER GETTING AIRBORNE, THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED TO PITCH UP TO A NEAR VERTICAL ATTITUDE, FALL OFF ON A WING AND THEN STRIKE THE GROUND NOSE FIRST. THE PROSPECTIVE BUYER HAD NO PREVIOUS TIME IN THE AIRPLANE, AND WAS A PRIVATE PILOT WITH 150 HOURS TOTAL TIME. THE OWNER/OPERATOR HAS LESS THAN 100 HOURS TOTAL TIME AND WAS UNRESTRAINED IN THE AIRPLANE WHICH WAS EQUIPPED WITH ONLY ONE SET OF SEAT BELTS.
Probable cause
IMPROPER USE OF THE FLIGHT CONTROLS BY THE PROSPECTIVE BUYER, AND THE FAILURE OF THE OWNER/OPERATOR TO ADEQUATELY SUPERVISE THE PROSPECTIVE BUYER. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE IN TYPE OF AIRPLANE FOR THE PROSPECTIVE BUYER, AND THE LACK OF A RESTRAINT SYSTEM FOR THE PASSENGER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC92LA137
- Event ID
- 20001211X15489
- Case number
- NYC92LA137
- 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: fc2279029541341575d8604e12355d0dff5f667f5811901e79e732679d16b8c5; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:11:22.850Z.