MKC87LA176 · Ellsworth VARIEZE
Ellsworth VARIEZE · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water while taxiing
From Lusambo Airport (LBO) to Macomb, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- MKC87LA176
- 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
Ellsworth VARIEZE
- Aircraft type
- Ellsworth VARIEZE
- 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
- N24GE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lusambo Airport (LBO)To Macomb, 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- On ground/water collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Lift-off, premature
- Pilot in command › Taxispeed, excessive
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PIC WAS BACK-TAXIING DOWN RWY 18 WITH A PLANNED DEPT TO THE NORTH. THE PIC STATED THAT HE APPLIED BRAKES IN ORDER TO MODIFY HIS DIRECTION DURING THE TAXI, BUT THE BRAKE FAILED TO COMPENSATE. THE PIC FURTHER STATED THAT HE APPLIED MORE PWR IN AN ATTEMPT TO CORRECT DIRECTION WHEN THE OPENED CANOPY FELL DOWN. THE PIC GRABBED THE CANOPY IN ORDER TO SECURE IT AND RELEASED CONTROL OF THE THROTTLE. DURING THIS SEQUENCE THE ACFT WAS INCREASING IN SPEED TOWARDS AN EMBANKMENT. THE PIC PULLED BACK ON THE FLT CONTROLS AND THE ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE FOR A SHORT DISTANCE, HOWEVER, HE STATED THAT THE ACFT HAD INSUFFICIENT A/S TO REMAIN AIRBORNE AND IT DESCENDED TO THE GROUND. THE ACFT THEN ROLLED A SHORT DISTANCE, BROKE THROUGH A FENCE, CROSSED A DITCH AND A ROAD, AND FINALLY CROSSED ANOTHER DITCH, COMING TO REST IN AN OPEN FIELD. THE ACFT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY DESTROYED BY FIRE. EXAM OF THE BRAKES DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF A MALFUNCTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MKC87LA176
- Event ID
- 20001213X32166
- Case number
- MKC87LA176
- 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: 1c424499e6fdd462e0f4eeceef242d17cc6ae4d79b0ec634420991fa51b2e058; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:44:00.602Z.