CHI05CA246 · Ayres S2R-G10
Ayres S2R-G10 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From Davenport, ND (private airstrip) to Private airstrip
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI05CA246
- 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
Ayres S2R-G10
- Aircraft type
- Ayres S2
- 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
- N3024U
- Operator
- James F. Plath · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Davenport, ND (private airstrip)To Private airstrip
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude, 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 airplane collided with a corn crop on takeoff. The pilot reported he was taking off to the northeast with a full chemical load when the accident occurred. He stated that the airplane became airborne when he was approximately halfway down the 2,640 foot long grass airstrip, but it didn't accelerate. He stated he "eased back on the stick but nothing happened." He stated he then pulled back on the stick in an attempt to clear the corn field at the end of the airstrip, but the airplane did not climb. The airplane collided with the eight to nine foot tall corn crop. Inspection of the airplane failed to reveal any mechanical failure/malfunction which would have prevented the airplane from gaining altitude.
Probable cause
The pilot failed to gain suffient altitude during takeoff in order to clear the corn crop at the end of the runway. A factor associated with the accident was the corn crop.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI05CA246
- Event ID
- 20050913X01445
- Case number
- CHI05CA246
- 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: 25a09363cc2b58ea983529bffcb6cf096197a044cf12cc3b12370a0ba2899395; retrieved 2026-09-22T05:26:10.724Z.