CHI91LA279 · Varga 2180
Illinois Wing Civic Air Patrol Varga 2180 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to 4K4 · HILVETY, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI91LA279
- 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
Varga 2180
- Aircraft type
- Varga 2180
- 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
- N686EE
- Operator
- Illinois Wing Civic Air Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 4K4 · HILVETY, IL
- 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
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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 › Performance data, not understood
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES AND TERRAIN WHILE ATTEMPTING TO CLIMB FROM TAKEOFF WITH A SAILPLANE IN TOW. THE SAILPLANE RELEASED FROM THE TOW PLANE AND RETURNED TO THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT THE AIRPLANE ENCOUNTERED LIGHT TO MODERATE TURBULENCE DURING INITIAL CLIMB AND THE AIRPLANE SANK INTO TREES ONE MILE NORTH OF THE AIRPORT. IN AN INTERVIEW AFTER THE ACCIDENT THE PILOT DID NOT REMEMBER DOING A WEIGHT AND BALANCE CALCULATION BEFORE TAKEOFF. WHEN QUESTIONED ABOUT STALL RECOGNITION AND RECOVERY THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE WAS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER AIRCRAFT IN THAT YOU ONLY HAD TO HOLD THE NOSE UP AND THE AIRPLANE WOULD FLY ITSELF OUT. THE DENSITY ALTITUDE AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS 2500 FEET. THE AIRPLANE WAS ESTIMATED TO BE AT OR SLIGHTLY ABOVE ALLOWABLE GROSS WEIGHT AT TAKEOFF.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PLANNING AND PREPARATION AND AIRPLANE PERFORMANCE DATA NOT UNDERSTOOD BY THE PILOT. FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ACCIDENT ARE THE PILOT'S LACK OF TOTAL EXPERIENCE IN TYPE OF OPERATION, DELAYED REMEDIAL ACTION, AND THE OPERATOR'S INSUFFICIENT STANDARDS AND REQUIREMENTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI91LA279
- Event ID
- 20001212X18058
- Case number
- CHI91LA279
- 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: c75466e040038292e3b20f7094a0ba00b3dd4e94f44116c4b4aecca3b3bc284d; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:44:18.370Z.