CHI04LA010 · Wright Redux Association 1903 WRIGHT FLYER
Wright Redux Association 1903 WRIGHT FLYER · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport (1C5) to 1C5
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA010
- 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
Wright Redux Association 1903 WRIGHT FLYER
- Aircraft type
- Wright Redux Association 1903
- 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
- N203WF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport (1C5), Bolingbrook, ILTo 1C5
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 › Lack of recent experience in type of aircraft
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, encountered
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The experimental exhibition replica of a 1903 Wright Flyer impacted terrain after it stalled about 30 feet above ground level after takeoff The pilot stated that upon reaching the end of the launch rail, he encountered a wind gust at the same time that he was pulling back on the stick, resulting in the airplane pitching upward to about 30 degrees. The wind gusts recorded 15 minutes prior to the accident indicated that they were gusting to 20 knots, and to 26 knots 5 minutes after the accident. The private pilot had a total flight time of 650 hours, of which 6 minutes were in the accident airplane.
Probable cause
The inadequate planning/decision by the pilot to begin a flight in gusting wind conditions, the pilot's lack of experience in the airplane, and the stall encountered by the pilot during takeoff. The wind gusts were a contributing factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA010
- Event ID
- 20031020X01779
- Case number
- CHI04LA010
- 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: e661bd9b0947232fad5fb36d280444071e33a313ac0cb7229aa2addf08f1b93f; retrieved 2026-09-22T08:20:14.049Z.