WPR10LA274 · Smithwick/Treidel TUKAN
Smithwick/Treidel TUKAN · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) during takeoff
From Smith Prairie Airport (2U0) to Smith Prairie Airport (2U0)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA274
- 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
Smithwick/Treidel TUKAN
- Aircraft type
- Smithwick/treidel TUKAN
- 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
- N7513W
- Operator
- Chezem Daniel R
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Smith Prairie Airport (2U0), Prairie, IDTo Smith Prairie Airport (2U0), Prairie, ID
- 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 with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to witness accounts, the unlicensed pilot of the experimental weight-shift-controlled airplane was performing practice takeoffs and landings. During the last departure the airplane banked to the left and collided with trees. Global Positioning System (GPS) flight track data recovered from a handheld GPS device within the airplane (which did not include altitude information) indicated that this turn was flown at a rate and groundspeed comparable to the prior turns performed during the flight. The data further revealed that a few seconds after the final turn the airplane made an abrupt course reversal back to the runway; however, this sudden change of heading was more than likely a GPS anomaly. The pilot did not provide either a written or verbal statement to the NTSB and did not respond to multiple requests to make the airplane or engine available for examination.
Probable cause
The pilot's loss of control of the weight-shift-controlled airplane during takeoff for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA274
- Event ID
- 20100602X22314
- Case number
- WPR10LA274
- 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: 992577519583e8e458bdaf71bdd76daa5efcc35f0a18d8daeaa18024241559a7; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:18:39.339Z.