CHI83FU010 · Teratorn TIERRA
Teratorn TIERRA · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI83FU010
- 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
Teratorn TIERRA
- Aircraft type
- Teratorn TIERRA
- Category
- Ultralight
- 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
- UNREG
- Operator
- Ernest Kamrath
- 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 103: Ultralight
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pepin, WI, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT HAD RECENTLY PURCHASED & ASSEMBLED THE ULTRALIGHT VEHICLE. THE PERSON WHO SOLD HIM THE ULTRALIGHT SAID THAT HE SAW THE VEHICLE ON THE NIGHT BEFORE. ACCORDING TO HIM, IT 'LOOKED LIKE HE HAD IT TOGETHER ALL RIGHT.' HE SAID IT WAS HIS IMPRESSION THE PLT HAD TAKEN FLT LESSONS 7 OR 8 YRS BEFORE, BUT HAD NOT SOLOED. HE FURTHER SAID THE PLT WAS SUPPOSE TO HAVE TAKEN FLYING LESSONS BEFORE FLYING THE ULTRALIGHT. ON THE MORNING OF THE ACCIDENT, THE PLT TOLD HIS WIFE THAT HE WAS GOING TO START IT & PUT IT IN THE GARAGE. SHE HEARD THE ENG RUNNING, AND LATER WHEN SHE LOOKED, SHE FOUND THE ACFT ACROSS A FIELD, WHERE IT HAD CRASHED AGAINST A HILL. THE ULTRALIGHT HAD COME TO REST AT A TREE LINE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF LITTLE MOVEMENT AFTER IMPACT. THE IMPACT HAD OCCURRED ON A 90 DEG HEADING WITH RESPECT TO THE FIELD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI83FU010
- Event ID
- 20001214X44049
- Case number
- CHI83FU010
- 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: 5383c96ad3794cc88292007aa16e866549d8c5c88482db969481c5a2cc4e631f; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:18:15.534Z.