CHI04LA253 · Williams Glastar GS-1
Williams Glastar GS-1 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Hayward, WA to Hayward, WA
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI04LA253
- 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
Williams Glastar GS-1
- Aircraft type
- Williams GLASTAR GS-1
- 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
- N501YR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Hayward, WATo Hayward, WA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, 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 float equipped airplane collided with trees following a loss of control while taking off from a lake. The pilot reported that prior to takeoff he added one notch of flaps, raised the water rudders, and let the airplane weather vane into the wind. He reported that during the takeoff the airplane "... buffeted as if the wind direction was changing rapidly." The pilot reported he was over the trees at the end of the lake at an airspeed of 60 miles per hour (mph) and an altitude of 150 feet above ground level (agl), when the airspeed went to zero and the right wing dropped. He reported that he corrected by applying aileron, but the airplane rolled to the left. He reported the airplane leveled out at an altitude of about 100 feet agl prior to experiencing a "... total loss of lift... ." The pilot stated he attempted to get the airplane as close to shore as possible. The airplane came to rest on a beach with the right wing in the water. The pilot reported during an interview, that he used two notches of flaps for takeoff and he applied full flaps when he was having difficulty gaining altitude. The pilot reported "Wind shear on takeoff, the magnitude of which I experienced that day is hard to predict... ." The winds reported approximately 10 miles from the accident site about 22 minutes prior to the accident were from 170 degrees at 14 knots, gusting to 18 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to adequately compensate for the wind conditions which resulted in a loss of aircraft control. A factor associated with the accident was the gusty wind condition.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI04LA253
- Event ID
- 20040914X01410
- Case number
- CHI04LA253
- 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: 7dd751d65f24ffbc09f7c547e95a0fb4ab228f1cef875ed5adae8a3f684c98a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:13:10.286Z.