CHI08CA073 · Squier Pauper II
Squier Pauper II · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Stockbridge, WI to Brennand Airport (79C)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08CA073
- 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
Squier Pauper II
- Aircraft type
- Squier PAUPER
- 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
- N70727
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Stockbridge, WITo Brennand Airport (79C), Neenah, WI
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the amateur-built airplane reported that he had attended a chili fly-in and was departing at the time of the accident. An area of a frozen lake approximately 1,800 feet long had been plowed for use as a runway during the fly-in. The pilot stated that he had taken off and the airplane was about 25 to 30 feet above the terrain, when he initiated a turn and subsequently impacted the frozen lake surface. The pilot noted that he had difficulty identifying a clear horizon due to snow covered terrain and the overcast cloud conditions. He added that depth perception is very difficult under those circumstances. The pilot stated that the airplane was mechanically sound and he did not experience any problems with it. He recalled weather conditions as approximately 1,500 feet overcast, with 7 miles visibility. Winds were light and variable at the time.
Probable cause
The pilot's spatial disorientation while maneuvering after takeoff and his subsequent failure to maintain clearance from the terrain. Contributing factors were the snow-covered lake and overcast clouds, which resulted in the pilot's spatial disorientation due to the indefinite horizon. An additional factor was the airplane's low altitude at the time of the occurrence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08CA073
- Event ID
- 20080310X00290
- Case number
- CHI08CA073
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: a2b95df58ae4218befadca8f096723eabe0952d6ab91911465c396d050e0565c; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:25:05.187Z.