WPR10LA292 · Air Creation GTE
Air Creation GTE · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) during initial climb
From Springville, UT to Springville, UT
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA292
- 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
- 1 · 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
Air Creation GTE
- Aircraft type
- Air Creation GTE
- Category
- Weight-Shift
- 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
- N227EH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Springville, UTTo Springville, UT
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (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
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- 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 non-certified pilot purchased the weight-shift category light sport airplane approximately 3 months prior to the accident and was departing on his first flight when the accident occurred. A family member reported that the pilot had flown non-motorized hang gliders 40 years prior to the accident, and he had not obtained instruction in the airplane prior to departing on the solo flight. Witnesses observed the airplane, which resembled a powered hang glider, accelerate and takeoff from an open school yard. Immediately after it got airborne, it impacted telephone and power lines that ran along a road at the end of the school yard. An amateur video recording of the accident flight depicted a red and white motorized hang glider accelerate across a schoolyard baseball field, get airborne and, 2 seconds later, impact residential telephone and power cables. The airplane rotated violently around the power lines and came to rest on the street below. The engine could be heard operating until the airplane’s collision with the power lines. The power lines are estimated to have been approximately 35 feet above the ground. While toxicology testing was consistent with relatively recent use of two separate narcotic painkillers and one prescription anti-anxiety medication, the toxicology findings were not consistent with impairment by any of the medications at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight planning and his failure to maintain clearance from obstacles during takeoff. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's lack of experience.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA292
- Event ID
- 20100614X72125
- Case number
- WPR10LA292
- 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: c1ac63fa673e75764c847735f308b6cc7f0fec09377037fe30d2c8bf48f76029; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:52:22.064Z.