CEN12CA131 · Infinity Power Parachutes LLC CLASSIC 2002
Infinity Power Parachutes LLC CLASSIC 2002 · Accident: loss of lift during takeoff
From Alanson, MI to Alanson, MI
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12CA131
- 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
Infinity Power Parachutes LLC CLASSIC 2002
- Aircraft type
- Infinity Power Parachutes CLASSIC 2002
- Category
- Powered Parachute
- 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
- N3902V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alanson, MITo Alanson, MI
- 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
- Loss of lift
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and passenger departed from a hayfield in the powered parachute. The pilot reported that, just after takeoff, when the powered parachute was 20 to 25 feet in the air, the powered-parachute lost lift and descended. During the forced landing and collision with trees, the powered parachute received substantial damage to its airframe. The pilot added that he was unable to climb or turn the powered parachute. A witness reported that, when the powered parachute was about the same height as the trees, it looked like the powered parachute was caught in a downdraft and the canopy partially collapsed. The witness said that the canopy re-inflated just before the powered parachute impacted trees. The pilot said that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The powered parachute’s encounter with a downdraft/windshear during takeoff, which resulted in a loss of lift.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12CA131
- Event ID
- 20120111X72151
- Case number
- CEN12CA131
- 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: 14fb43f48ae7b4bb9e3d4f9be7668efca3a2d692746c7fc41456f29a2473b590; retrieved 2026-09-15T17:03:37.460Z.