WPR11CA418 · Christen Industries Inc A-1
Christen Industries Inc A-1 · Accident: dragged wing/rotor/float/other during takeoff
From Butte Valley Airport (A32) to Butte Valley Airport (A32)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR11CA418
- 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
Christen Industries Inc A-1
- Aircraft type
- Christen A-1
- 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
- N2868A
- Operator
- Alexander Marshall Jay
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Butte Valley Airport (A32), Dorris, CATo Butte Valley Airport (A32), Dorris, CA
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Dragged wing/rotor/float/other
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial Possible conflict
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- 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 flew to a nearby airport to practice touch-and-go takeoffs and landings. After his first touchdown, he applied power for takeoff and, as his airplane lifted off, he encountered a strong wind gust from his left side. He applied left aileron, but his right wing tip contacted the ground. The airplane cartwheeled and came to rest upright. The airplane immediately burst into flames and was consumed by the fire. The closest weather station, located 19 nautical miles from the airport, reported the wind at 280 degrees at 12 knots. The pilot reported that the wind was from the northwest at 15 knots, gusting to 20 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain lateral aircraft control while taking off with a gusting crosswind.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR11CA418
- Event ID
- 20110901X10448
- Case number
- WPR11CA418
- 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: 3d293a9d616c8529c68428690a9f8be68420ecfa73746586c2664e85b8e64e39; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:41:09.039Z.