WPR11LA076 · Taylorcraft BC12-65
Taylorcraft BC12-65 · Accident: loss of visual reference on approach
From Martin Field (S95) to Martin Field (S95)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11LA076
- 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
Taylorcraft BC12-65
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft BC12
- 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
- N36041
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Martin Field (S95), College Place, WATo Martin Field (S95), College Place, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Loss of visual reference
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- 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 pilot had just performed four uneventful takeoffs and landings in light and variable wind. He then deplaned a passenger and departed for a short local flight. About 20 minutes later, he returned to land on the same runway. He noted that the sun was low on the horizon, and as he turned the airplane onto the final approach leg of the traffic pattern, his view became completely obscured by the sun's glare. He maneuvered the airplane in an unsuccessful attempt to see the runway, and the airplane subsequently struck trees located approximately 250 feet to the right of the runway. The airplane departed controlled flight and struck the ground, which resulted in substantial damage to the wings and fuselage. The pilot stated that he did not correct for a crosswind during the final approach, and the airplane drifted from the runway centerline. The pilot reported that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. A Safety Board computer program used to calculate the position of the sun and moon was used and the sun disk was determined to be 1.8 degrees above the western horizon on an azimuth of 233.2 degrees.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to abort the landing when he lost sight of the runway due to sun glare, and his inadequate compensation for the crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11LA076
- Event ID
- 20101213X94250
- Case number
- WPR11LA076
- 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: 6e778f86d88176b66801027c94acd549acae11b71e18e43f619d787f3f21c59a; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:37:23.027Z.