CHI88DEI02 · Geddes COMMANDER 503 COMMANDER
Geddes COMMANDER 503 COMMANDER · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From 4G4 to 4G4
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI88DEI02
- 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
Geddes COMMANDER 503 COMMANDER
- Aircraft type
- Geddes COMMANDER 503
- 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
- N9173W
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 4G4To 4G4
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, not performed
- Pilot in command › Proper glidepath, misjudged
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE GYROPLANE STRUCK A TREE WITH THE MAIN ROTOR BLADES AND DESCENDED OUT OF CONTROL INTO TERRAIN. THE PILOT WAS ATTEMPTING TO STRETCH A PARTIAL POWER EMERGENCY DESCENT TO REACH HIS INTENDED TOUCH DOWN POINT. THE PILOT REPORTED A PARTIAL POWER LOSS. NO MALFUNCTIONS OR MECHANICAL FAILURES WERE FOUND.
Probable cause
PILOTS CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE AIRCRAFT WITH A KNOWN DEFICIENCY AND ATTEMPTING TO STRETCH HIS PARTIAL POWER DESCENT TO REACH A RUNWAY RATHER THAN LAND OFF AIRPORT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI88DEI02
- Event ID
- 20001213X26144
- Case number
- CHI88DEI02
- 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: ef30bb29bc7e97135c2b9eba4c5cc339f4bb8c587875af2afc2f053f459647d4; retrieved 2026-09-21T16:06:41.229Z.