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CHI02LA023 · Taylorcraft F19

7 Nov 2001 · Backus, MN, United States

Taylorcraft F19 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From Park Rapids Municipal Airport Konshok Field (PKD) to Pine River Regional Airport (PWC)

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Event

NTSB case
CHI02LA023
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
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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Taylorcraft F19

Aircraft type
Taylorcraft F19
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
N20002
Operator
Edwin Burt
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Park Rapids Municipal Airport Konshok Field (PKD), Park Rapids, MNTo Pine River Regional Airport (PWC), Pine River, MN
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
Tree(s)
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 › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
  • Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The pilot said he checked the weather before departing Park Rapids, Minnesota, for his flight to Pine River, Minnesota. He said that the weather was visibility 5 miles and ceiling 1,200 feet. The pilot said, "Encountered clouds/fog enroute, became disoriented, descended into trees." An examination of the airplane revealed no anomalies. The aviation routine weather report (METAR) for Park Rapids, Minnesota (16 miles northwest of the accident site), 7 minutes before the reported accident time, was few clouds at 500 feet, ceilings of 900 feet broken and 2,400 feet overcast, 8 statute miles visibility, temperature 41 degrees Fahrenheit (F), dew point 39 degrees F, winds 320 degrees at 19 knots with gusts to 22 knots, and altimeter 30.08 inches of Mercury. According to FAA airman records, the pilot held a private pilot certificate with single engine land rating.

Probable cause

The pilot's improper preflight planning/preparation, and his continued flight into known adverse weather conditions. Factors relating to the accident were the pilot becoming lost/disoriented in the weather, visual lookout by the pilot during the descent not possible, the pilot's lack of certification to fly in instrument meteorological conditions, the low ceiling, the fog, and the tree.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CHI02LA023
Event ID
20011128X02305
Case number
CHI02LA023
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-11-08.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: ec4521add6833bcd802fb8486742aa9d77916bf5a52d8ac33775f4ceb6b47785; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:44:43.173Z.