MIA08CA191 · Airframes Unlimited USA-1B
Airframes Unlimited USA-1B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Floyd County Volunteer Fire Department Station 2 Heliport (VA33) to Floyd County Volunteer Fire Department Station 2 Heliport (VA33)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA08CA191
- 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
Airframes Unlimited USA-1B
- Aircraft type
- Airframes Unlimited USA-1
- Category
- Powered Parachute
- 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
- N723JH
- Operator
- Kenneth E. Mahoney · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Floyd County Volunteer Fire Department Station 2 Heliport (VA33), Surry, VATo Floyd County Volunteer Fire Department Station 2 Heliport (VA33), Surry, VA
- 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 powered parachute stated that he started his takeoff roll on runway 27. The parachute canopy partially inflated with a right side end cell closure. The pilot stated, "he did not observe the tangled steering lines on the takeoff roll and failed to ensure that the parachute canopy was controllable". The powered parachute made a hard right turn at liftoff, reached an altitude of about five feet, and the parachute canopy collapsed. The powered parachute impacted the runway hard and rolled over inverted. The airframe received structural damage. The pilot conducted an engine shutdown and exited the powered parachute. The pilot stated there were no mechanical problems with the powered parachute.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper handling of the powered parachute during takeoff/initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA08CA191
- Event ID
- 20081003X42124
- Case number
- MIA08CA191
- 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: fb8c66afd8dcff0fe9eee7ccd08d81b6a463e2c08e5b534abc0a68ec04902d73; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:20:20.307Z.