CEN12LA410 · Steven Bornstein/Thomas Whitta ZENITH CH 701
Steven Bornstein/Thomas Whitta ZENITH CH 701 · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Chapman Memorial Field (6CM) to Chapman Memorial Field (6CM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN12LA410
- 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
Steven Bornstein/Thomas Whitta ZENITH CH 701
- Aircraft type
- Steven Bornstein/thomas Whitta ZENITH
- 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
- N701ZN
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chapman Memorial Field (6CM), Centerburg, OHTo Chapman Memorial Field (6CM), Centerburg, OH
- 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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 systems
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot performed a low approach to the runway and added engine power to go around. As the pilot added engine power, the airplane began to yaw left. To correct the airplane’s yaw, the pilot attempted to depress the right rudder pedal, but he was unable to move the pedal. The airplane was headed for trees, and the pilot added power in an attempt to takeoff and climb over them; however, the airplane struck the “uppermost” branches. The pilot then reduced engine power and performed a forced landing in a shallow pond. An examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal rudder operation. The two sets of rudder pedals were separated by 1.5 inches, and the pilot had only 3 hours in the accident make and model airplane. Although it is possible that the pilot's right foot inadvertently contacted the left rudder controls and restricted the rudder pedal movement, the investigation was unable to determine the cause of the impeded rudder movement.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inability to actuate the airplane’s rudder during an attempted go-around for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN12LA410
- Event ID
- 20120702X24026
- Case number
- CEN12LA410
- 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: 981465f76f88df851ec2291c76c04f8ecde772da4bc45994a898d1576e11d3df; retrieved 2026-09-15T18:41:42.022Z.