CHI04CA218 · Cessna 305A
Northwest Soaring Club Cessna 305A · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Frankfort Dow Memorial Field (FKS) to an unrecorded destination
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04CA218
- 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
Cessna 305A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 305
- 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
- N54517
- Operator
- Northwest Soaring Club
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Frankfort Dow Memorial Field (FKS), Frankfort, MITo 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
- Loss of control on ground/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
- 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 › Abort, not performed
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not attained
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
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 used for glider aero-tow was destroyed by post-impact fire after it impacted the terrain during takeoff climb. The tow pilot reported that he was departing the grass airstrip with a glider in tow. The glider was positioned to the right of the tow plane. During the takeoff ground run, the glider aborted the takeoff by releasing the tow line. The tow pilot reported that the tow plane "suddenly yawed 45 degrees" to the left and veered off the left side of the grass airstrip and "crossed a marsh/wetland area" southwest of the runway. He reported the airplane was still at full power and was at minimum controllable airspeed. The pilot reported that he continued the takeoff and attempted to climb over a tree line, but the airplane had "insufficient airspeed and stalled." The airplane impacted the terrain and caught fire. The tow airplane utilized had a five point pilot restraint harness and the pilot received minor injuries. He exited the airplane before the airplane was consumed by fire. The glider pilot reported he aborted the takeoff when he saw the tow plane veering toward the left side of the runway. The glider rolled out on the airstrip without damage. An inspection of the accident site revealed that the tow plane was about 30 feet from the left side of the runway when the glider aborted its takeoff. Then the tow plane traveled about 150-175 feet through the tall grass before it lifted off and attempted flight. The tree line was located approximately 250 feet from the point of lift off. At 1415, the observed wind, approximately 28 nautical miles south of the accident site, were 250 degrees at 6 knots. The runway in use was runway 33. The glider pilot reported the wind from the south produced a 5 knot tailwind.
Probable cause
The tow pilot failed to maintain directional control during takeoff roll and failed to abort the takeoff. Additionally, the tow pilot failed to attain adequate airspeed which resulted in a stall. The tailwind and the tall grass were contributing factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04CA218
- Event ID
- 20040909X01381
- Case number
- CHI04CA218
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: a958d4242be8d6ed0cce6b11faa9bcb29bce8abcd22a5f3a0ddd51d59fd2f3bd; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:54:36.483Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: damage. The narrative states "The airplane used for glider aero-tow was destroyed by post-impact fire" and that the pilot exited "before the airplane was consumed by fire".