CEN11LA536 · Bellanca 14-13
Bellanca 14-13 · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Matson Airport (2WI6) to Worthington Municipal Airport (OTG)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11LA536
- 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
Bellanca 14-13
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 14
- 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
- N74260
- Operator
- Cross Richard G
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Matson Airport (2WI6), Stoughton, WITo Worthington Municipal Airport (OTG), Worthington, MN
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- 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 reported that he performed an engine run-up prior to takeoff and everything was normal. He had the flaps extended 2 notches when he initiated the takeoff to the north on the 2,500-foot-long wet grass runway. The airplane became airborne about half way down the runway. The pilot stated that upon reaching 65 to 70 mph, he reduced the flaps to 1 notch to maintain the best rate of climb. He stated that the airplane cleared the initial group of trees, then it began to descend. The airplane subsequently contacted the trees and sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings. A witness said the airplane was “mushy” during the takeoff and the nose remained high prior to the right wing dropping and the airplane descending. The airplane was about 190 pounds under gross weight and the density altitude was approximately 2,600 feet. The operation of the airplane near maximum gross weight at a high density altitude on a wet grass runway degraded the airplane’s takeoff performance. A postaccident examination of the airplane and engine did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded any normal operation. The pilot reported that he did not get the landing gear retracted prior to impact.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper preflight planning and his failure to gain proper airspeed during takeoff from a grass airstrip resulting in a stall, the loss of control, and subsequent impact with the trees. Contributing to the accident was the pilot operating the airplane at near maximum gross weight and the high density altitude.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11LA536
- Event ID
- 20110802X82938
- Case number
- CEN11LA536
- 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: 7fd290449962e10ff37889c6c29a5d17fd700af6288933fc765b335d34acdfc8; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:33:00.477Z.