CHI01LA149 · Geertz Zenith CH 200
Geertz Zenith CH 200 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Greater Kankakee Airport (IKK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI01LA149
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Geertz Zenith CH 200
- Aircraft type
- Geertz ZENITH CH 200
- 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
- N77VZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greater Kankakee Airport (IKK), Kankakee, ILTo 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 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was destroyed on impact with terrain. The pilot was fatally injured. A witness stated, "I watched it start a bank turn to the left and then nosed straight down. There were no other movements of the aircraft after it nosed down. It did not spin while going down. ... I could not tell if the engine was running ... nor did I notice the propeller. It appeared to me that there was no control of the aircraft after the left bank." The private pilot had 88.9 hours of total flight time and held a third class medical certificate. The pilot listed he used Zoloft and noted no "Mental disorders of any sort ... " on the application for that medical certificate. Extracts from the pilot's personal medical records showed, "... self-discontinued Zoloft 2 weeks ago because of conflict with FAA licensing - patient feels fine off of it. ... An entry approximately 6 weeks before the accident indicates " ...occasional problem staying asleep - has taken Ambien in past ... no problem with concentration ... meds - Zoloft 50 mg per day, approximately 3 days per week ..." Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) reviewed that application and cautioned the pilot, "Because of your history of anxiety and sleep disturbance, operation of aircraft is prohibited at any time new symptoms or adverse changes occur or any time medication and/or treatment is required." CAMI's Final Forensic Toxicology Accident Report stated, "SERTRALINE detected in Liver 0.283 (ug/ml, ug/g), DESMETHYLSERTRALINE detected in Liver, and DESMETHYLSERTRALINE detected in Blood." Desmethylsertraline is the predominant metabolite of the antidepressant sertraline, Zoloft. Sertraline, Zoloft is [a] SSRI antidepressant. ... Warnings - may impair mental and/or physical ability required for the performance of potentially hazardous tasks (e.g., driving, operating heavy machinery). No pre-impact anomalies were found with the airplane.
Probable cause
The loss of control on initial climbout for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI01LA149
- Event ID
- 20010530X01034
- Case number
- CHI01LA149
- 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: f92c08f452aec152c23a0cebf33fafa89ad221b070cc95e6b0d6a6f9c166f212; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:32:04.632Z.