CHI07LA157 · Purvis Rans S6S
Purvis Rans S6S · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Cushing Field Ltd Airport (0C8) to Cushing Field Ltd Airport (0C8)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI07LA157
- 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
Purvis Rans S6S
- Aircraft type
- Purvis RANS S6S
- 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
- N743RP
- Operator
- Richard B. Moroniak · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cushing Field Ltd Airport (0C8), Newark, ILTo Cushing Field Ltd Airport (0C8), Newark, IL
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, not performed
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The sport pilot purchased the airplane a month prior to the accident. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane takeoff. They reported that just after liftoff, the nose of the airplane went straight up and the airplane climbed to an altitude of 100 to 200 feet above the runway. One witness stated the airplane was in a 90-degree nose up attitude. They stated the airplane then drifted to the left and stalled. The witnesses reported the pilot made no visible attempt to recover from the stall. The airplane impacted the terrain off the left side of the runway. Examination of the wreckage estabilshed engine and flight control continuity. The pilot contacted the aircraft builder shortly before the accident stating that he did not like the digital instruments that were installed in the airplane. The pilot discussed installing airspeed and altimeter gauges. Inspection of the airplane revealed that airspeed and altimeter gauges had been installed in the airplane. The altimeter was installed, but had not been connected to the static port. The line connection on the back of the altimeter was capped with a plastic plug. The airspeed indicator was connected to the static port only. The instrument panel cutouts were found in the pilot's hangar. The pilot's logbook showed he had 155 hours of ultralight flight time and 42 hours of flight time in light sport airplanes. The logbook showed he had a total of 1.5 hours of flight time in the accident airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane which resulted in inadequate airspeed and a subsequent stall. Contributing to the accident were the pilot's improper installation of the altimeter and airspeed indicator which rendered them inoperative and his lack of experience in the airplane.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI07LA157
- Event ID
- 20070530X00654
- Case number
- CHI07LA157
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2007-05-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f51062cce80fb49deac2c6d95e25732425c38db01ac334b7f1c54852e60628ce; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:34:55.549Z.