CHI83FA440 · Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From BISMARK, MO to Lincoln, IL
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI83FA440
- 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
Ercoupe (Eng & Research Corp.) 415-C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe (eng Research 415
- 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
- N3184
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BISMARK, MOTo Lincoln, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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
- Operation with known deficiencies in equipment › Performed
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A WX BRIEFING AT 1433 CDT, THE PLT WAS ADVISED TO EXPECT 500 FT CEILINGS, 2 MI VISIBILITIES, RAIN SHOWERS & THUNDERSTORMS. HE THEN TOOK OFF FROM BISMARK, MO WITH NO FLT PLAN. REPORTEDLY, WX WAS ENCOUNTERED DURING THE FLT WHICH DETERIORATED AS HE PROCEEDED ALONG THE ROUTE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CRASHED INVERTED, IN A CORN FIELD NEAR RAYMOND, IL. A WITNESS SAID THAT HE SAW THE ACFT 'GOING OR SPINNING STRAIGHT DOWN; HOWEVER, HE DID NOT SEE THE ACTUAL CRASH. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE THE OUTER 4-FT SECTION OF THE LEFT WING & THE LEFT AILERON HAD SEPARATED IN FLT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THEY HAD SEPARATED UPWARD & AFT, NO EVIDENCE OF FATIGUE OR CORROSION WAS FOUND IN THE FRACTURE AREA. THE RIGHT WING TIP HAD ALSO FAILED, BUT IT HAD NOT SEPARATED FROM THE ACFT. AN NTSB WX SUMMARY SHOWED THAT THE CLOUD BASES WERE AT APPX 700 FT AGL & THE CLOUD TOPS WERE AT ABOUT 14,000 FT MSL. ABOUT 50 MI NORTHEAST AT DECATUR, IL, THERE WAS A 2000 FT OVERCAST. THE ACFT WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH CERTIFIED TURN & BANK OR ATTITUDE INDICATOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI83FA440
- Event ID
- 20001214X44456
- Case number
- CHI83FA440
- 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: 1ff203e59eac217f34703685e820be0d2e9dd22f7d8823e25c421c974c996f84; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:07:02.271Z.