ERA12CA430 · Taylorcraft BC12-D
Taylorcraft BC12-D · Accident: loss of control on ground while standing
From Benton County Airport (0M4) to David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA12CA430
- 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
Taylorcraft BC12-D
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft BC12
- 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
- N96282
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Benton County Airport (0M4), Camden, TNTo David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport (DWH), Spring, TX
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) start-up
- 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 on ground
- 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 handling/service
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, while starting the engine, he used small chocks around the tires and did not tie down the tail of the airplane. During his first attempt to hand-prop the engine, it did not start. He then advanced the throttle "very slightly." The engine subsequently started and, as the pilot was moving to the cockpit, the engine rpm increased. The airplane taxied out of the small chocks, began turning in circles, and the pilot grabbed the right horizontal stabilizer. The airplane continued to circle, dragging the pilot, and struck a parked airplane before coming to rest. A postaccident examination of the airplane did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions, nor did the pilot report any. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the empennage.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to properly secure the airplane before hand-propping the engine for startup.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12CA430
- Event ID
- 20120705X93933
- Case number
- ERA12CA430
- 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: 4ed1402980bf61412d04dbdca819d014669b6f4ac3ee7578eaf1612cb639b6da; retrieved 2026-09-15T18:46:32.123Z.