CHI03LA093 · Luscombe 8A
Luscombe 8A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From Sylvania Airport (C89) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI03LA093
- 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
Luscombe 8A
- Aircraft type
- Luscombe 8
- 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
- N45799
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sylvania Airport (C89), Sturtevant, WITo 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 terrain/water
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was substantially damaged when it stalled and impacted the runway immediately after takeoff. The student pilot reported he applied full power and held the control stick full aft as the takeoff roll began. At approximately 40 miles per hour, just as he was beginning to lower the nose, the airplane "leaped off of the ground into the air," according to the student He added: "The plane was still nose high and began to bleed off airspeed until both wings stalled." The left main landing gear and left wing tip impacted the ground, breaking off the left main gear. The propeller subsequently contacted the pavement and the aircraft came to rest on the left side of the runway facing east. The dual student stated this was his first flight with this instructor. He reported that he had one previous flight in the accident aircraft approximately one month prior to the accident flight. The flight instructor stated that on the morning of the accident flight, he and the student discussed the aircraft and the plan for the flight. The instructor reported that after they took the runway for takeoff, the student gradually increased power to begin the takeoff roll. Within a few seconds, however, the student abruptly applied full power and full aft elevator. He stated the aircraft was almost immediately airborne. The aircraft subsequently stalled and impacted the ground according to the instructor. The instructor stated that he tried to lower the nose but was unable to overpower the student. "The student froze on the controls and didn't relinquish control."
Probable cause
The student pilot's abrupt liftoff resulting in his failure to maintain adequate airspeed followed by a stall. Also causal was the instructor's inadequate supervision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI03LA093
- Event ID
- 20030408X00460
- Case number
- CHI03LA093
- 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, coordinates. 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: 66ce6568f9a683570c8ed3184e75861a126f6a229631788d9f02e424b0815b28; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:27:33.646Z.