WPR12LA302 · Bunch COZY-CANARDIII
Bunch COZY-CANARDIII · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW) to Denver International Airport (DEN)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12LA302
- 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
Bunch COZY-CANARDIII
- Aircraft type
- Bunch COZY-CANARDIII
- 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
- N718JT
- Operator
- Tischler Joseph F
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Winslow Lindbergh Regional Airport (INW), Winslow, AZTo Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, CO
- 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 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during takeoff, the airplane became airborne with 3,000 ft of runway remaining. When the airplane was between about 25 and 40 ft above ground level (agl), its nose dropped, and the pilot then pulled back on the control stick. The pilot was able to level out the airplane and establish a 200-ft-per-minute climb rate. As the airplane approached 75 ft agl at an indicated airspeed of about 95 mph, the airplane's nose dropped to about a 30- to 45-degree nose-down attitude. The pilot again pulled back on the control stick, but he was unable to regain control of the airplane before it impacted the ground.
The pilot reported that the engine was running roughly during an initial start-up, but he stated that it ran normally during a subsequent start-up and two engine run-ups before taking off on the accident flight. A postaccident examination of the engine and airframe revealed no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The airplane's calculated gross weight exceeded its allowable maximum gross weight, and high-density altitude conditions existed at the time of the accident. Although these conditions likely affected the airplane's performance, the pilot was able to establish a positive climb rate after takeoff; however, he did not maintain control of the airplane as the pitch changed.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain airplane control during climb in high-density altitude conditions and with the airplane’s weight in excess of its maximum allowable gross weight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12LA302
- Event ID
- 20120711X85316
- Case number
- WPR12LA302
- 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: 970064903b31fcc3c68bb3304b3c78ba8df0d362df1ca4ccaf838ecdc649c452; retrieved 2026-09-13T22:28:51.842Z.