ERA12CA548 · Handy James L BUCKEYE DREAM MACH
Handy James L BUCKEYE DREAM MACH · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) during initial climb
From West Caln, PA to West Caln, PA
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA12CA548
- 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
Handy James L BUCKEYE DREAM MACH
- Aircraft type
- Handy James BUCKEYE DREAM MACH
- 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
- N4258M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From West Caln, PATo West Caln, PA
- 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
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to the pilot of the powered parachute, he took off in a westerly direction with a right crosswind, and during the initial climb, the parachute veered left. The pilot tried to correct the direction of flight, but the cart struck a tree and then impacted the ground, seriously injuring the pilot and substantially damaging the metal tube airframe. According to a witness, the powered parachute was flying “normal” until a gust of wind pushed it into the tree. Postaccident examination revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the powered parachute that would have precluded normal operation. The wind reported at an airport 4 miles to the southeast of the accident location was from 360 degrees at 5 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot’s inadequate compensation for the wind during the initial climb, which resulted in collision with a tree and terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA12CA548
- Event ID
- 20120906X93300
- Case number
- ERA12CA548
- 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: 33ff4c91cf55208573f3ce005252571afc0d5232accae2930d2d588294529a35; retrieved 2026-09-15T19:44:46.490Z.