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NYC04CA112 · Bolger Scott RV-6A

28 Apr 2004 · Fredericksburg, VA, United States

Bolger Scott RV-6A · Accident: undershoot on approach

From Shannon Airport (EZF) to EZF

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Event

NTSB case
NYC04CA112
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

Bolger Scott RV-6A

Aircraft type
Bolger Scott RV-6
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
N999SB
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Shannon Airport (EZF), Fredericksburg, VATo EZF
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
Approach · VFR pattern final
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
Undershoot
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

No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

After takeoff, the pilot was notified that the tow bar was still attached to the nose wheel, and he attempted to return to land. Upon turning final for the runway, the pilot extended the flaps to 40 degrees, and the airplane subsequently got too slow. Unable to make the runway, the pilot elected to perform a landing to a field. While touching down, the tow bar came in contact with the ground, and the airplane nosed over.

Probable cause

The pilots failure to maintain airspeed during a precautionary landing which resulted in an undershoot and subsequent impact with terrain. A factor was the inadequate pre-flight inspection.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record NYC04CA112
Event ID
20040520X00617
Case number
NYC04CA112
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: eac4c6767c193d2343ec7ddeb96dc0a8bdd8b6c0240cc1a1644e260fabf0cf11; retrieved 2026-09-22T07:38:55.964Z.