CHI00LA240 · Thompson AVID MARK IV AVID MARK
Thompson AVID MARK IV AVID MARK · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From MO42 to 3M0 · GASTONS, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI00LA240
- 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
Thompson AVID MARK IV AVID MARK
- Aircraft type
- Thompson AVID MARK
- 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
- N619T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MO42To 3M0 · GASTONS, AK
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane departed on runway 06 (2640 X 70 feet). The pilot reported the grass on the runway was taller than normal, and that a tailwind existed at the time of takeoff. The pilot reported the takeoff roll was longer than normal and he was about to abort the takeoff when the airplane became airborne. The pilot reported he avoided a 60 foot tree at the end of the runway but was unable to gain airspeed. He reported he turned to the north but the airplane lost altitude and impacted into a hedgerow of shrubs. The pilot reported there was nothing wrong with the airplane and that the engine was producing about 6,100 rpm's. He reported the airplane could not fly out of the tailwind and that it flew into a stall.
Probable cause
the pilot's inadequate preflight planning, his failure to abort the takeoff, and the inadequate airspeed. Factors included the tall runway grass, the quartering tailwind, and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI00LA240
- Event ID
- 20001212X21668
- Case number
- CHI00LA240
- 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: fabbedab0e558a70f5e59b3fb8b3275a19fd2a2ecac301237d2e30c9cf3985de; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:08:12.171Z.