NYC04LA035 · Northam RAF 2000
Northam RAF 2000 · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Accomack County Airport (MFV) to Accomack County Airport (MFV)
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA035
- 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
- 1 · 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
Northam RAF 2000
- Aircraft type
- Northam RAF-2000
- 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
- N999GC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Accomack County Airport (MFV), Melfa, VATo Accomack County Airport (MFV)
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was observed to initiate a takeoff in his homebuilt gyroplane, and then abort the takeoff. He pulled clear of the runway, and held for about 10 minutes with the engine idling, after which he pulled onto the runway again, and took off. He was next observed about 40 minutes later by a witness who reported that the nose of the gyroplane was oscillating up and down. The oscillations steadied out and the gyroplane disappeared from the view of the witnesses. Additional witnesses saw the gyroplane about 2 miles further long, still flying in the same direction. Three of the witnesses reported the gyroplane was in straight and level fight when it rolled inverted, and descended to the ground. One witness reported the gyroplane made a vertical climb, and reversed course to impact the ground. The main rotor blades exhibited damage consistent with low rotor, and had struck the vertical stabilizer. Marks were also found on the underside of the main rotor blades that were consistent with propeller contact. Flight control continuity was not confirmed due to fire and impact damage. The pilot's total flight experience was in excess of 14,550 hours, which included about 70 hours in make and model.
Probable cause
A loss of control for undetermined reason(s).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA035
- Event ID
- 20031216X02040
- Case number
- NYC04LA035
- 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: 57b1bf90a3932bc597acd1afb642675caf1ccdbd06a470582ba03924a91d84e2; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:47:19.872Z.