ATL82DA255 · Benson B8M
Benson B8M · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From 128 · Ashland, KY to 128 · Ashland, KY
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL82DA255
- 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
- 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
Benson B8M
- Aircraft type
- Benson B8
- 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
- N37630
- Operator
- Michael Donahue
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 128 · Ashland, KYTo 128 · Ashland, KY
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Ground loop/swerve, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
- Pilot in command › Qualification
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD A PRIVATE LICENSE WITH A SINGLE ENGINE LAND RATING, BUT ONLY HAD ABOUT 1 HR OF PREVIOUS FLIGHT TIME IN THE BENSEN GYROCOPTER. THE OWNER STATED THAT HE TOLD THE PILOT NOT TO CLIMB ABOVE 5 TO 6 FT. THE OWNER ALSO STATED THAT THE PILOT TOLD HIM HE HAD READ "FLYING INSTRUCTIONS - FUNDAMENTALS OF GYROCOPTER FLIGHT" WHICH REQUIRES AT LEAST 50 TAKEOFFS AND LANDINGS NEVER EXCEEDING 1 TO 2 FT AGL. THE PILOT TOOK OFF ON A PARALLEL TAXIWAY, FLEW STRAIGHT AND LEVEL AT LOW ALTITUDE UNTIL MIDWAY DOWN THE TAXIWAY, THEN CLIMBED TO ABOUT 100 FT. AS HE APPROACHED THE END OF THE TAXIWAY, THE PILOT BEGAN A RAPID POWERED DESCENT FOLLOWED BY A DESCENDING LEFT TURN. THE GYROCOPTER TOUCHED DOWN AT A RELATIVELY HIGH GROUND SPEED, SWERVED 2 OR 3 TIMES, AND TIPPED OVER. THE PILOT CLAIMED THAT HE WAS COERCED INTO FLYING THE GYROCOPTER WITHOUT ADEQUATE INSTRUCTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL82DA255
- Event ID
- 20020917X02825
- Case number
- ATL82DA255
- 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: 2d096630885c0d231d33b46ddf7292379bd948ad187c321db2939ba153428a76; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:57:38.103Z.