ERA11CA261 · Piper J3C-65
Westfield Flight Academy Piper J3C-65 · Accident: loss of control on ground while standing
From Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (BAF) to Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (BAF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA11CA261
- 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
Piper J3C-65
- Aircraft type
- Piper J3
- 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
- N10674
- Operator
- Westfield Flight Academy
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (BAF), Westfield, MATo Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport (BAF), Westfield, MA
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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 control on ground
- 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 systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- 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 stated that he was hand-propping the airplane, as it was not equipped with an electric starter. A passenger, who had flown with him twice since the previous fall, was sitting in the front seat. The pilot instructed the passenger to hold the heel brakes with her toes, and initially verified her ability to do so by pushing on the propeller hub. He then returned to the cockpit area and explained the application of full-aft elevator stick to prevent propeller airflow from raising the tail, and the use of the throttle, which he opened 1/8 to 1/4 inch for the start. The pilot also explained the use of the magnetos, had the passenger turn the magneto switch through the "Both" and "Off" positions twice, and advised her that if anything went wrong, to switch the magnetos off. After priming the engine, the pilot confirmed that the brakes were set by attempting to push the airplane from the propeller hub, then confirmed elevator movement when the control stick was fully aft. The pilot threw the propeller and on the third attempt the engine caught. As the pilot walked around the wing tip to get into the airplane, the airplane began rolling. He called out for the passenger to turn off the magnetos; however, the airplane rolled into a parked airplane. The pilot did not note any mechanical anomalies with the airplane, nor did he indicate the use of any other airplane securing devices such as chocks or a tail tie-down.
Probable cause
The pilot's sole reliance on the passenger for securing the airplane during the engine start and the passenger's inability to maintain braking after the engine started.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA11CA261
- Event ID
- 20110424X10508
- Case number
- ERA11CA261
- 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: eda82b370829068e855ef0a7798394599a6c30be3a61deca6466176012272c1a; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:05:27.530Z.