CHI01LA002 · Moseler RAF 2000 GTX SE RAF 2000 G
Moseler RAF 2000 GTX SE RAF 2000 G · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Muskegon County Airport (MKG) to MI (private airstrip)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01LA002
- 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
- 1 · 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
Moseler RAF 2000 GTX SE RAF 2000 G
- Aircraft type
- Moseler RAF-2000
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N1187Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Muskegon County Airport (MKG)To MI (private airstrip)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Miscellaneous rotorcraft, main rotor/tail boom contact
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not possible
- Vertical stabilizer › Loss, total
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The amateur-built gyroplane was destroyed on impact with terrain and a post crash fire while en route to land on the pilot/builder's private airstrip. An on-scene examination of the wreckage was performed. The vertical stabilizer of the aircraft was found about 1 mile from the main wreckage site. There was evidence of a main rotor strike to the vertical stabilizer. The pre-rotator drive belts for the rotor system were found about 300 feet from the main wreckage. A post-impact fire extensively damaged the main wreckage. No anomalies could be found that could be associated with a preexisting condition.
Probable cause
The main rotor contacting with the vertical stabilizer, the loss of the vertical stabilizer, and the aircraft control not possible by the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01LA002
- Event ID
- 20001212X22116
- Case number
- CHI01LA002
- 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: 93a8233e95210e2879154a961555eefb22225851cb71f361c8de72af2d0a5d58; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:50:00.160Z.