ERA10CA033 · Elkins Christen Eagle II
Elkins Christen Eagle II · Accident: landing gear collapse
From Athens, KY to Gene Snyder Airport (K62)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA10CA033
- 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
Elkins Christen Eagle II
- Aircraft type
- Elkins CHRISTEN EAGLE
- 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
- N78E
- Operator
- Edward Larkin
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From Athens, KYTo Gene Snyder Airport (K62), Falmouth, KY
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Landing gear collapse
- 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 › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that during takeoff from the turf runway, he became airborne at "lower than normal" airspeed. The pilot lowered the airplane's nose to gain airspeed, and the airplane's main landing gear contacted the ground. He reported hearing a "metallic sound" and "suspected damage to the right wheel pant." The pilot proceeded with the takeoff, and chose to circle the airport and land to inspect the damage. According to the pilot, the approach to landing was normal and the touchdown was "firm but within normal range." Upon touchdown, both left and right main gear collapsed, and the airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and wings. A Federal Aviation Administration inspector who examined the airplane after the accident reported identifying no mechanical malfunctions.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper liftoff, resulting in a collision with the ground during climbout.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA10CA033
- Event ID
- 20091027X10906
- Case number
- ERA10CA033
- 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: 8fe0b8fba7d9e55411584b3d9e5b0c5ea992f86cf44a089ea0b7aa36182255e3; retrieved 2026-09-15T13:26:33.119Z.