ERA09CA313 · Pensinger ZODIAC 601
Pensinger ZODIAC 601 · Accident: windshear or thunderstorm during initial climb
From Nelson Airfield (TN99) to Hawkins County Airport (RVN)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination and damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA09CA313
- 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
Pensinger ZODIAC 601
- Aircraft type
- Pensinger ZODIAC 601
- 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
- N250JP
- Operator
- Pensinger James M
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Nelson Airfield (TN99), Greeneville, TNTo Hawkins County Airport (RVN), Rodgersville, TN
- 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
- Windshear or thunderstorm
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that the departure airport has hills located to the east and north of the airport. He obtained an abbreviated computer weather briefing before the flight indicating that the surface winds were from 040 degrees at 6 knots. The surface winds at another airport located 20 nautical miles east of the departure airport were from 240 degrees at 11 knots, gusting to 14 knots. The pilot departed from runway 4 and started a right turn while flying 100 to 200 feet above ground level just past the hill located to the east. The pilot stated that the airspeed immediately decreased, the airplane became "mushy," and then made contact with a tree. The pilot stated that he encountered a wind change or wind shear swirling between the two hills. The airplane continued to lose altitude, and he made an off-field landing in an open field. The airplane hit an electrical line as he landed the airplane perpendicular to a road. The airplane collided with an embankment and burst into flames. The pilot stated there were no mechanical problems with the airplane before the accident.
Probable cause
An encounter with wind shear on initial climb after takeoff.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA09CA313
- Event ID
- 20090601X54259
- Case number
- ERA09CA313
- 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. 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: 4c785c9d399008bcd62977d3afd153060035eae43e4f10957cbbac55845a74db; retrieved 2026-09-15T11:15:35.161Z.