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NYC88LA182 · Lake LA-4-200

16 Jul 1988 · CANDLEWOOD LAKE, CT, United States

Lake LA-4-200 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff

From Danbury, CT to Candlelight Farms Airport (11N)

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Event

NTSB case
NYC88LA182
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

Lake LA-4-200

Aircraft type
Lake LA-4
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
N5033L
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Danbury, CTTo Candlelight Farms Airport (11N), New Milford, CT
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
Takeoff · roll/run
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 on ground/water
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

  • Aircraft performance, takeoff capability › Exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed

Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.

NTSB narrative

THE LA-4-200 MADE A TAKEOFF UNDER REPORTED CONDITIONS OF GUSTY WIND AND WAVES OF 1 TO 2 FEET. THE MAXIMUM DEMONSTRATED WAVE HEIGHT FOR THE AIRCRAFT IS 1 FOOT. THE PILOT REPORTED HE ABORTED THE TAKEOFF DUE TO A PERSON ON A JET SKI IN HIS WAY AND AS HE TRIED TO TURN TO THE RIGHT A WING DUG INTO THE WATER AND THE AIRCRAFT WATERLOOPED. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HIS TWO PASSENGERS AND HIMSELF WERE RESCUED BY BOATERS AND THE AIRCRAFT SANK WITHIN 15 SECONDS. NO WITNESSES WERE FOUND WHO SAW THE JET SKI. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF CONTROL DURING TAKEOFF FOR NO APPARENT REASON.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC88LA182
Event ID
20001213X26371
Case number
NYC88LA182
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: bfd62ad5bf3c64653de1f563a90542df84b531c7b40f874364e0fe62b83a05cd; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:29:06.743Z.