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NYC87DHA02 · Kolb Company TWINSTAR

9 Sept 1987 · HILLTOWN, PA, United States

Kolb Company TWINSTAR · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb

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Event

NTSB case
NYC87DHA02
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
2 · 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

Kolb Company TWINSTAR

Aircraft type
Kolb TWINSTAR
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
N23EH
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo not recorded
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 engine power
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
Stall
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 › Airspeed, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
  • Reason for occurrence undetermined

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

NTSB narrative

AFTER THE ACFT TOOK OFF, WITNESSES HEARD A POWER CHANGE & SAW WHAT APPEARED TO BE A LEFT TURN TO RETURN TO THE GRASS STRIP. SUBSEQUENTLY, IT ENTERED A DESCENT & CRASHED IN A LEFT WING DOWN, NOSE LOW ATTITUDE. THE PASSENGER WAS TAKEN TO A HOSPITAL, BUT DIED ABOUT 9-1/2 HRS AFTER THE ACDNT. EXAMS OF THE ACFT & ENG WERE MADE. NO PREEXISTING MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS NOTED, EXCEPT DAMAGE TO THE WOODEN PROP WAS CONSISTENT WITH LITTLE OR NO ENG POWER. THE KLOB TWINSTAR WAS A FOLLOW-ON, TWO-PLACE ACFT THAT WAS MANUFACTURED AFTER THE SINGLE-PLACE, ULTRALIGHT, KLOB ULTRASTAR WAS PRODUCED. RPRTDLY, THE ACFT HAD BEEN EQUIPPED WITH MANY ACCESSORIES, WHICH WHEN COMBINED WITH THE WEIGHT OF THE PLT & PASSENGER, WOULD HAVE EXCEEDED ITS NORMAL GROSS WEIGHT.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC87DHA02
Event ID
20001213X32176
Case number
NYC87DHA02
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: 8467dbf43cafa61287bfaa278fda169b827593e5f9be7b30895b8c93e2b76861; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:59:23.973Z.