ERA12FA006 · Harry L. Weber ARION LI
Harry L. Weber ARION LI · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Green Landings Airport (WV22) to Green Landings Airport (WV22)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA12FA006
- 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
- 1 · 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
Harry L. Weber ARION LI
- Aircraft type
- Harry L Weber ARION LI
- 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
- N747HW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Green Landings Airport (WV22), Hedgesville, WVTo Green Landings Airport (WV22), Hedgesville, WV
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2011)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Physical
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Several witnesses reported that, shortly after takeoff, when the airplane was about 15 feet above ground level, it suddenly pitched up about 45 degrees, stalled, and then came to rest against a residence near the turf runway. GPS data were consistent with the witness reports. Examination of the airframe and engine revealed no mechanical malfunctions or abnormalities that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot's medical records revealed that he had hypertension and a pacemaker, and that, about 8 months before the accident, the pacemaker was upgraded to a combination pacemaker/Automatic Internal Cardiac Defibrillator (AICD). Medical records revealed that the pilot was using medications to treat hypertension, moderate-to-severe congestive heart failure, recurrent ventricular arrhythmias, and atrial fibrillation. Toxicology testing confirmed the presence of such medications in the pilot's body. Given the postmortem examination, reported medication use, and the upgrade to a pacemaker/AICD, it is likely that the pilot had experienced a serious arrhythmia and severe congestive heart failure some time before the accident. Although the exact degree of premortem cardiac dysfunction could not be determined, the presence of the AICD indicated that the pilot's doctors had identified a significantly elevated risk of sudden cardiac death. Although an AICD reduces the risk of sudden death from tachyarrhythmia, it does not reduce the risk of a sudden death from other cardiac-related causes. Federal regulations only require a valid driver's license to exercise the privileges of a sport pilot certificate in a light-sport aircraft as long as pilots are not aware of any medical condition that would make them unable to operate a light-sport aircraft safely. However, the pilot most likely did not have sufficient knowledge to accurately assess the aviation safety risks associated with his condition. It is likely that the pilot's underlying cardiac disease caused an acute medical event, which led to his loss of control of the airplane and the subsequent aerodynamic stall at low altitude and collision with terrain.
Probable cause
An aerodynamic stall at low altitude due to the pilot’s acute cardiac event.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12FA006
- Event ID
- 20111005X02745
- Case number
- ERA12FA006
- 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: 46dde865175c167e424bf007452c4bd2aca3b10c9223861bbb42a70520bb9e05; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:54:12.248Z.