WPR10LA411 · Ercoupe 415 C
Ercoupe 415 C · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing during initial climb
From Lake Wenatchee State Airport (27W) to Auburn Municipal Airport (S50)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR10LA411
- 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
Ercoupe 415 C
- Aircraft type
- Ercoupe 415
- 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
- N2368H
- Operator
- Steven Lewis
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Wenatchee State Airport (27W), Leavenworth, WATo Auburn Municipal Airport (S50), Auburn, WA
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he made a short-field takeoff with an approximate 5 mile-per-hour headwind. Shortly after liftoff, he realized that, even with the best angle of climb speed, the airplane would have difficulty clearing trees at the end of the runway. The pilot continued the climbout and turned the airplane slightly to the right and the airplane collided with the top 10 feet of trees surrounding the airport. The pilot stated that, in retrospect, he might have taken off downwind to the east where there was more room, used a different airport, or maintained a faster airspeed. A witness noted that the turf field appeared to be bumpy and the takeoff roll was longer than he expected. He did not have the impression that the airplane had engine issues or entered into a stall after becoming airborne. The pilot also reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to adequately evaluate the airport and its environment in relation to the aircraft’s performance, which resulted in the airplane's failure to attain sufficient altitude to clear trees during the initial climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR10LA411
- Event ID
- 20100818X61133
- Case number
- WPR10LA411
- 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: f40839423cd50380b82fab39aa911ee3babdfb29537286d01a6e8feebbd2b2f1; retrieved 2026-09-15T14:52:06.031Z.