FTW02LA180 · Frennance Twinstar
Frennance Twinstar · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From 2F8 · Bastrop, LA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW02LA180
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Frennance Twinstar
- Aircraft type
- Frennance TWINSTAR
- Category
- Gyroplane
- 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
- N711FS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 2F8 · Bastrop, LATo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While returning to the airport, the gyroplane started losing altitude and impacted trees approximately 1/2 mile from the airport's only runway. The pilot reported that due to a concussion, he does not recall the events surrounding the accident. The passenger reported that he recalled that they flew over town, were en route back to the airport, and could see the airport when the gyroplane started to lose altitude. As the gyroplane neared the trees, he heard the engine noise increase. Subsequently, the gyroplane impacted trees and came to rest upright. The passenger added that as he exited the gyroplane, fuel was leaking on him. A witness heard the engine at full throttle, heard the rotor blades impact trees, and then the engine noise stopped; however, the witness did not make visual contact with the gyroplane. The pilot held an airline transport certificate, a commercial pilot certificate, and a flight instructor certificate with various airplane ratings; however, he did not hold a rotorcraft-gyroplane category and class rating. The pilot was unaware that he was required to obtain this category and class rating. At the time of the accident, the pilot had accumulated a total of 3.0 hours in gyroplanes.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to maintain altitude for an undetermined reason, which resulted in an in-flight collision with trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW02LA180
- Event ID
- 20020628X00996
- Case number
- FTW02LA180
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-06-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 25f98806af104c9b836fe685898b7835870eab051b776621a2c6d16fdca70a21; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:38:29.691Z.